Webbylog

Ooops, I've done it again!

2007-08-16T22:45:00.000+01:00

Oh dear - I've done it again - left it for ages & ages to update this blog.
And what's more - it's been so long they've changed the log in bits & pieces.

Well, I'm here, remembered my username etc., and set up my google bits!

Well, since my last posting so much has gone on - some same old stuff, some a bit more hairy and scary.

At present though I'm in a bit of a horrible place. Two months of hell in relation to my job - with admin's being downsized across the whole of the company world wide - so going from being told you've only got 4 weeks left, to being extended for another three weeks, and then finding a fantastic job, only to be told it can't be offered officially because the relevant sign-offs haven't happened - and then just days before the second deadline (4 to be precise) you finally get offered another role - just in the nick of time - but one that you really don't particularly want to be doing - but need to in order to keep the money coming in. Ho hum.

This week, all the stress has finally caught up with me, week three into my new job I am down with bronchitis - I blame it on the air conditioning personally! So I'm feeling quite crappy at the moment. My patience is running short, I'm stressed. Trying to run a business, and a full time job, and watch my husband playing games on the computer when he should be coming up with ways of earning some money - don't seem to make my life too great at the moment.

I know I should count my lucky stars, and there are undoubtedly more people far worse off than me - but I can't right now.

Perhaps I should have more faith.

I had, what I thought, was a fantastic interview last week for one of the local universities, for a job as a courseware developer. The job sounded brilliant - would have been excellent - but I didn't get it. Granted it wouldn't have been as flexible as current job - especially with little'n starting school in a few weeks time, but it would have been seriously satisfying - unlike my existing role which is just sorting out meetings in the diary. Not my idea of fun.

I'm sure there's a reason. I still have a few feelers out in other directions though - so whether they come through or not, time will tell. Time... Patience hasn't really been my strong point - well, I thought it used to be - but not any more.

Hopefully my partner will get through his second interview tomorrow and that should relieve some of the financial pressures looming on the horizon. How far can you cut down on things if you don't have much to cut down on?!

Well, that's enough for the moment - I don't want to stress myself before I go to bed and have a sleepless fretful night - anyway, it's time for my next bright red antibiotic pill!

Thank you for dropping by if you have. I'll try to have some positive words on here for next time!

PaulineA

My goodness! Has it really been that long?!

2005-10-30T21:22:00.000Z

Hello my dear friends,

I decided to sit down and do some blogging tonight - I had not realised just how few I had actually posted this year - two!!! Shameful.

It has been a busy year, I don't exactly know where it has all gone, other than working hard in one form or another - keeping house, publishing & part time jobs - not necessarily inthat order I hasten to add. The housework seems to come at the bottom of the pile for some reason - can't think why that would be!

Well, business has been ticking over for the past year. We bought it pretty much a year ago this month. We're about to put out our second title, and am working on a third, and looking at a few other different things to consider too - after having come back from The Frankfurt BookFair. My goodness me, what an experience! I do these crazy things and wonder how I manage! I survived my first trip to Germany, all by myself. I'd been stressing for a couple of weeks about how I was going to get around without knowing a single word of german - not knowing the transport system and being in a hotel, seemingly miles away from anywhere of any considerable life! Well, I surprised myself, managed to use public transport from the airport to the hotel, (which was in the middle of nowhere), and got into central Frankfurt and managed to find my way back to the hotel - eventually!! (I got onto the right bus - but it was going in the wrong direction!)

These kinds of things are always tiring at the best of times, but add to this the exhibition centre that takes half an hour to get from the entrance to the back end - then it's really knackering!

Suffice it to say, it was a good experience, once that I will plan for better next year, and will try to learn a little more german by then too!

Our little boy has now turned three - my time is flying so fast - seems like only last year he was born. My eldest will be 22 this year - and that's even more scary, and middle one is 20. Why is it that you don't really feel (in your head anyway) that you are any older than your early 20's or something, but your physical side kind of lets you down a bit?!

This month the physical side has certainly let me down! All that stressing about getting to Frenkfurt caused my skin to break out in some kind of rash - which is irritating as hell - constantly itching. Two weeks later it's still going on. I've never had anything to this extent before - I'm definitely gettingolder!

Another year has nearly gone, Christmas is looming in just a few weeks now as opposed to months, with no money, and debts mounting it's going to end up as very much back to basics! Home made presents I think will be order of the day - unless I can find myself a part time job between now & then that I can work around nursery, and the business! Easy one might think - but not so. It's rather hard for a mum to work part time these days! Temporary jobs seem to be full time. Part time jobs are permanents ones and never fall on the right day or times I can actually work! I think I may end up just selling the contents of our house - or rather the contents of our loft which has expanded somewhat over the last few years - loads of baby clothes & old computer bits etc etc., I'm sure there will be someone somewhere who will want something!

Well, I have a couple of other blogs I need to update - so I will come back again - soon!! I must become more disciplined and update this poor old blog more frequently.

Thank you for dropping by. :)

PaulineA

Another long time!

2005-04-29T22:28:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks

I am so sorry it has been such a long time since my last post - so long I can't remember when I did actually type anything in here. Feels like an eternity! So much seems to happen yet there don't sedem to be enough hours in the day any more to do everything AND get enough rest as well!

To bring those of you who do read my blogs up to date, the new business has been ticking over nicely, and a few lovely deals have been striked up - I just wish we didn't have to wait 90 days for the money to come in!

My youngest daughter will be home from her year out in Australia in a couple of months - onloy to return there again after the summer for a training sponsorship - so it looks as though I've lost her to the land of Oz. She will go far - in more ways than one!
My other daughter is busy preparing for her last year at Uni, and thinking up ideas for her dissertation. She too will go far, she just needs to remain focused and not distracted by the male species!!

Our little boy is coming on very fast - he's putting complete sentences together, whole phrases, and changing words to the songs that he knows replacing them with new words, or people. It's very interesting watching and listening to him when he does this. Not bad for one who has just turned two and a half!

Oh, and of course, I mustn't forget, it was our fourth wedding anniversary this week. :)
We had a very low key celebration as we were all extremely run down this week, husband had tonsillitis, son had bronchal infection, and I was knackered after having had two sleepless nights within 3 days of each other.

I have taken on a part time job now to help supplement the nursery fees - night care assistant at a local care home. I survived my first night last weekend quite successfully I think. I didn't fall asleep. I will be taking in my computer this week so that I can catch up with my blogging and any outstanding paperwork I need to do (on the computer of course!).

I have decided, for my sins, to create another blog which will cover the trials and tribulations of being a newbie publisher, from conception to current day. http://paulinethepublisher.blogspot.com
Hopefully it will give an insight into the publishing world. I am going to try hard to keep it as much up to date as I possibly can!

It has certainly been a very busy time this year to date.

We have managed though, to make a start on our lovely garden! We have been steadily removing remnants of a humungous carp pond that a previous own seemed to think was a good idea, and covered most nof the entirety of the back garden. I have never come across so much concrete, boulders, and more concrete in my entire life. But suffice it to say, we have made good headway. A kanga, a hardworking cousin, and lots of back-breaking digging, smashing up of concrete & stones, and it's all slowly starting to take shape - Finally! We've been here nearly 4 years now, and we may actually have a garden to enjoy this summer. :)
I planted some summer bulbs in my new border a few days ago, so am looking forward to those appearing to add some well deserved colour into our garden. More grass will be put down as well, to make a softer environment for our little one.

I also managed to dig out the ironing from under the stairs and a couple of days ago, actually, wait for it... ironed a few things!! Woo hoo! I managed to make a start on the pile that has been accumulating since... I don't know when! There were clothes in the basket that I'd forgotten I even had!

Well my SP2 pack is almost downloaded now I've got my wireless network set up - yes I'm a sad techy geeky type at heart :) Very pleased with the network, though don't quite understand why I have to have my wirless adapter sitting in just the right place in order to obtain a connection with the main device which is sitting just a few feet above my head! I'm hoping it will work in the garden in the summer, so I can do some work on the old laptop whilst I'm enjoying the floral delights out there!

Time for me to go I think.

Thank you for dropping by I will try hard not to leave it so long any more. It should be easier now I'm working nights every Saturday - I will type up my blog & then transfer it the following day as I don't suspect I'll be allowed to log on whilst on duty!

Please come again soon.

PaulineA

All work and no play

2005-02-22T21:26:00.000Z

Hello,

It has been ages since I've written in this blog, so HUGE apologies to anyone who reads this for not having my act together.

The past few months have been seriously hectic.

For those of you who don't follow this blog, I, together with my husband, took over a publishing company at the end of October last year, and we have been busy finding our feet and progressing the business. So much so, we are just about to launch our newest title!!!

I can tell you, this has been an incredibly steep learning curve - but, something you can actually see tangible results from - so that is always good.

Well, for those of you who don't know, we actually publish erotic fiction. Yes, your eyes weren't deceiving erotic fiction!!

It has been quite an interesting experience.

Picking and choosing stories to go into the book. Liaising with book distributors, and stores who may want to take on our books. Checking out new markets. Creating websites. Creating information sheets for book stores. Liaising with writers. Setting up bank accounts, and business accounts. Trying to keep up with bits and pieces (unknown to me) within the book world in order to get the most out of our business. Getting registered with this service and that!

But, I think I'm just about starting to make some headway!

Oh, I know you're wondering - what's the title of the book...

well...

Erotica 5: Bettina Can't Help It - author Bettina Varese.
If you're brave, you can check out Bettina's website - www.bettinavarese.com
It's not totally complete - but it's being worked on!

So, add all this business stuff, to a small part time job, running the house, and looking after hubby and a two year old and you'll understand a little of the chaos I'm experiencing these days!

Days don't seem to be long enough - or I'm just too tired - trying to catch up with a serious sleep deficit - but never seeming to catch up!
(I'm sure there are lots of you who have been there!)

So, now it's time to catch my breath a little. The book is at the printers, launch date is due. A small breather now until the London Book Fair!

I may just think about catching up with the ironing which has been sat in the cupboard for a bit longer than I'd care to let on!!

Well, I think a nice relaxing Ovaltine will have to do for the moment - I've run out of malted milk as I haven't done a proper shop this month yet either!

So, I promise I'll try and be good and write a little more frequently.
Honest.

Do please drop by again soon!

Webby!

It's been a long time!

2004-10-20T22:43:00.000+01:00

Well, hello folks!
It seems like an eternity since I wrote in my poor old blog!
Things have been crazy over the last few months, but everything is all coming to fruition this weekend!!

We will be finalising our business purchase. It's been a slow & lengthy process but we're almost there. We settle the monies on Friday & then we're off to pick up our stock & equipment. It's going to be a hard weekend I think!

I've been attempting to blitz the house of clutter - but it's looking ten times worse at the moment. Hubby's done a trip to the tip, but there is another one pending. I'm having to clear some of my precious books in order to help with the space clearing. I really hate parting with books - but I'm trying to follow the clothing rule - if you haven't worn it (in this case looked at it) in over a year (or two, or three!) then it should really go!
I was going to sell a load of stuff on eBay, but I can't be bothered right now.

Having been busy setting up banking accounts, ordering software, sorting out van hire, busines insurance, model agencies, photographers, printers, coming up with ideas for future story lines, setting up a PO Box, etc, on top of looking after an energetic two year old, work a couple of small part time jobs and try to run the house I'm somewhat frazzled at the moment!!

There are so many things to try and remember to do, there are things around the house I really ought to do but really can't be bothered at the moment. There is no time for me it seems - i'm always busy making sure everyone else is ok but never seem to get time to check if i'm ok.

I've been getting my 'stress-ache' a few times over the last couple of weeks so have made sure I get to bed early at least twice a week in order to try and counteract this - it seems to work - but it is something I will have to keep a close eye on as I can't afford to be rendered useless.

Well, that's my ranting over for today - it's good to let it out some times!

Thank you for reading, I'm sure there are some of you out there that can relate! It would be good to hear from some of you though!!

Drop by again soon and I'll hopefully be a little more together with this!!

PaulineA

An exciting week!

2004-09-17T22:49:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,

Well, after yet another hectic day, I am finally sitting down at my computer & writing a few words.

I finalised the opening of my business bank account today - so that's all underway. We have a draft contract supplied to us by the Solicitor - all ready to go, delivered in just over 24 hours! I am dead impressed. All looks good.

Am so looking forward to my holiday next week!

It's going to be a busy weekend - mystery shopping, delivering my Avon orders, and making sure we've got everything together to take away with us and then packing!
Then make sure house is tidy, as there's nothing worse coming back to a house that looks like there's been an explosion in it!

Well, that's it for tonight I'm afraid - not much inspiration left in me today.

Come back soon!

Pauline.

Business start-up - seriously hard work!

2004-09-16T21:21:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,
Well, what a hectic week this has been! Apart from the regular things I do, Avon, mystery shopping, part time job plus housework & looking after our little'n, I've been trying to sort out a few more bits and pieces regards our new business venture. So, today, I've managed to see the bank and sort out ID bits and pieces in order to open up a business account. Managed to nab a solicitor - impromptu and have nailed him into looking at the business purchase agreement before we go on holiday on Monday! He's off on holiday too - so almost split second timing going on there.

I still have yet to pack, finish the washing, tackle the ironing and get the house back up together (read tidy!).

Thomas has been out of sorts this week, seems to be teething or just a bit off - I really hope he is sorted by the time we fly out on Monday evening.

Yesterday I saw my eldest daughter back off to Uni, though she's off to Germany next week and I won't get to see her again until just after her 21st birthday - a week before Christmas!

I haven't heard a thing from my younger daughter who's travelling round Australia since her birthday - probably having a marvellous time - but nevertheless - a courtesy call every now and then probably wouldn't hurt too much - especially as I've been the one paying for her phone top-ups!!

Well, hopefully next week I'll be able to chill and relax a bit. This week has been way too busy.

Anyway, that's it for now.

Drop by again soon!

Pauline.

Shattered!

2004-09-13T23:33:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,

Well, I guess all the excitement from Friday (getting our offer for the business we are purchasing accepted) has finally caught up with me! Feeling absolutely knackered today - though I guess that probably isn't helped much by the fact that our little boy woke up at around 6am this morning and I didn't get to bed till around 1am!

I guess though, I'd better get used to it! Going to have to be working hard I think over the next few months as we takeover and get to grips with our new business.

It's another late night now it seems, but research seems to take forever. Have been looking into business bank accounts together with an excellent looking ebook viewer (FlipPublisher) - though it's rather expensive! Have been getting bored with having to scroll through PDF files - this new one makes a pleasant alternative.

Well, it's 20 to midnight, so I may just get to bed today rather than tomorrow this time, so I will bid you a fond farewell, and hope to see you again soon!

Please drop in again.

Pauline.

We did it!!!

2004-09-12T22:41:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks!

Well, we've done it!

We put in an offer for the business we were looking at, and after a small amount of negotiation - we got it!!

It was quite a whirlwind kind of day, with not much time to think about anything - it still hasn't really sunk in - but I'm sure it will once things have settled, money's been paid and we have to get down to some hard graft!

So, after a few contracts have been signed, sealed and delivered etc., we will be the proud owners of an independent publishing company.

Until everything is sorted, I can't say which publishing company, don't want to put a jinx on it at this stage.

Suffice it to say, I'm really excited about it! It's the most perfect business I could possibly think of.

So, watch this space!

Come back soon!

Pauline

PMT!

2004-09-08T22:34:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,
Well, these last few days have been THE most infuriating!!

I'm not sure if there is anything such as Post Menstrual Tension - perhaps someone can enlighten me if there is such a thing - cos it's certainly not Pre-menstrual and it's doing my head in!!

The slightest thing has either upset me or made me ready to kill someone - it has been that extreme.

I was heading to work the other day and a piece of music came on the radio - Jon & Vangelis - I'll find my way home. I love this piece of music and had decided some time ago, morbid though it may seem, it would be a good piece to have played at my funeral (this came about at the time my husband's father was terminally ill, and thought it would be a good idea to decide on things earlier on in case anything happened to either of us), and the tears were streaming down my face making it almost impossible to drive for a while.

Yet, yesterday - I had to phone a certain british telephone company about some problems with a phone socket. After 19 minutes on hold I managed to speak to someone who told me I was speaking to the wrong department and they gave me another number. So, another 15 minutes later I spoke to someone else, who told me exactly the same & gave me yet another number!!
So on third attempt - I decided to opt for the call back option - then only to be told it was probably cheaper to go to PCWorld to get the filter as it would cost around £50 for an engineer to come out & fix it!!

Then, I decided to go out and find a push chair suitable for holiday - so a lightweight umbrella folding type one. You'd think it would be easy. But no, the one I wanted wasn't available. Which I only found out after I'd paid for it - so thereby needed a credit back to my card!

Grrrrr.

If anyone else suffers in this way I would be really pleased to hear from you! Post MT is quite scary as it seemingly comes out of nowhere!

Anyway, that's it for now folks.
Drop by again soon.

Pauline :)

It's been ages & ages!!!

2004-09-05T22:53:00.000+01:00

Hello Folks,

I'm not sure how many people, if any, read my blogs - I'd like to think someone does - so if you are reading this and have been reading them in the past - humble apologies for having to wait so long for this next one!

It has been incredibly busy these past few weeks...
"So what's new?" I hear you say

Well...

My youngest daughter has celebrated her 19th birthday down in the land of Oz and has now moved on to Perth to continue her year long adventure - though there's only 10 months left of it now, as she's been away for two months already! Geez time flies!

My eldest daughter has been home for the summer, working two jobs in an attempt to have money saved up for next term at Uni, pay off her car insurance, mot, tax etc., and pay for her living expenses when she goes on a placement in Germany for three months!

All this global travelling by my girls!

I've been busy planning all the necessaries for our holiday in a couple of weeks - like car rental and airport parking - all important stuff - but can take a bit of time to find the relevant deals!

Both me and my husband have been doing lots of research these last few weeks in light of our potential business venture. I think it will all pay off in the end!
And this weekend we've been checking out our potential business purchase and meeting the current owners. They were lovely genuine people. It looks incredibly promising - all we need to do is to play with some figures and ultimately decide on whether we will need to re-arrange our house - and hope we don't get beaten to the post!

All exciting stuff I can assure you.

Well, certainly more exciting than the flippin' housework which seems to be always never ending.

Oh, we did have Jon's mum over for part of this week, so we had lots of days out, and little'n ended up going to bed late every night! Hopefully I'll get him back into his routine before we head off to the sunny mediteranean.

Well that's it for now. Got to sort out my Avon letters for my customers!

Drop by again soon.

Pauline

It's been a while!

2004-08-17T23:52:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,
Apologies for the lengthy delay in writing another blog - I just don't know where the time has gone. The days and weeks seem to be flying by but at the same time seem to be getting nowhere!

Thomas our little boy seems to have turned into a demon child at the moment - doing everything he shouldn't be doing despite being told a hundred times to the point that one gets sick to death of one's own voice!

I've been busy doing mystery shops in an attempt to earn a little bit of money - but with all the travelling and petrol costs I have to deduct I do wonder whether it is actually worth all the effort - perhaps I will streamline and only go for the more lucrative jobs instead.

In an attempt to get fitter I acquired a bike trailer a couple of months ago - finally, I have now managed to dig out my bike - though it was somewhat rusty in places despite being relatively new (hardly used!) - so that's all oiled up & cleaned up. I had to re-invest in a new bicycle pump as mine seems to have gone AWOL. I also invested in a kick stand (bikes don't seem to come with these any more!) so when I do come to a halt and need to park without laying the bike on the floor, I can do it easily!
So, now all I need to do is pump up my tyre, attach the bike trailer to my bike and stop procrastinating!!!

Oh yes, I still need to find my bike helmet!

I'm sure Thomas will love it once we get going. I can't help being somewhat apprehensive though over riding out on the roads. The cycle lanes just don't look wide enough and watching other drivers on the roads, is it really safe enough to go out on them with a child in tow?! What a dilema!

I'm sure I will venture forth and when I do you will be the first to know. :)

I actually managed to tackle some of my heap of ironing. It's not as high as it was, but with recent washing it seems to be piling up again - will it never end???!!!

I've also been trying to slowly blitz the house as my husband's mum is coming over for a few days next weekend, and our spare room / office was in a terrible state the last time she came over - so I am going to make sure that it is as clear and as tidy as possible - you can actually see the floor this time so far! (Always a good start I think). I have a few things to put away in the loft - though that is fillling up with things I need to sell on eBay and haven't quite gotten around to.

Where do the hours go in a day?

Also, we have been considering the purchasing of a business - so we have been attempting to do lots of research / analysis / soul searching etc., to see if we a) have what it takes b) can afford the repayments to the loan we will need in order to purchase it c) can we improve upon it.
These and another hundred questions all need answering - but some of the information we don't yet know about - but need to find out etc.
Business plans to be written - to ensure we cover everything we need to think about.

The list is never ending!

Next week should be quieter!

Tonight I had to top up my daughter's mobile phone as she's in australia and can't seem to do that from where she is - which I don't mind as it means she can keep in touch even if it is at my expense! She's nearly been in the land of oz now for two months already! Time certainly flies.

Well, I'd better finish off here now as it's gone midnight yet again.

Hope you drop by again soon.

Thank you for reading.

PaulineA

All hot & sweaty!!

2004-08-08T21:37:00.000+01:00

Hello again!

Well, it's been a busy old weekend. I decided to do some work in the garden as I want to make a safe area for my little boy to play in without fear of him landing on concrete & causing himself some serious damage!

We have in our garden the remains of a humungous carp pond. It takes up more than half the garden if you trace it carefully. Some of it I have already covered up reasonably successfully with grass.

Other bits still need demolishing.

We made quite an impressive start on this earlier in the year, but as most things, other things got in the way and it came to an abrupt halt. I decided I was so sick to death of looking at this half demolished monstrosity I would attempt to continue the demolition job. There is one hell of a load of concrete in this thing. You could build a house from the amount of rubble we have building up and I'm only half way through it!

Huge concrete boulders and home made concrete make for quite a challenge I can tell you - especially in the heatwave we have been having of late. I'm sure I have lost about half a stone this weekend! (I can't tell you for sure as our scales need new batteries!)

After getting despondent with knocking down the pond and only getting so far - as some of the concrete really is quite dense & compact - I decided I'd had enough of our inherited raised herb bed - which sits near to our house. This is the area I have earmarked as a small play area for our little boy.

So, sledgehammer at the ready - and demolishing commenced - starting yesterday afternoon. Oh, what bliss this one was to demolish. There is such satisfaction in knocking something down. The walls came down so easily, a few knocks and hey presto! Wall comes loose. So, walls knocked down, and earth cleared out. I did half of it last night.

This morning I finished it off, and extended my demolishing act to the paving slabs that were all around the area too, digging out an area, so that it becomes a sunken area, so I can lay in some gravel. What a difference it makes not seeing this huge monstrosity of a herb garden, which always seemed to end up as a dumping ground or overrun with mint!

Tomorrow I will get the polythene to lay under the gravel and I will re-use the gravel in the other part of our garden, which I will then excavate so I can have some lovely sunny flower borders!

Well, I guess you could say I've had quite a satisfying weekend all in all. I've got rid of some aggression together with a bit more of the concrete monstrostities we inherited in our garden!

That's it for now folks - I need to give my poor arms a rest.

Please drop by soon!

Pauline

That was the week that was!

2004-08-08T09:35:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks!

What a week!
It started off innocently enough - the Sunday before last I decided to reinstall my computer - i.e. reformat my hard drive and start afresh - as it had been getting more and more sluggish and too many blue screens of death for my comfort.

Easy enough I thought. All my data backed up to my husbands machine (thank goodness for networking!), and all set to go.

I thought I had a boot disk - but that didn't work!
Thank heavens for my Laptop and even more thank you to http://www.bios.com/!!!
So, boot disk made.

Hard disk wiped, fdisked & partitioned - all ready for re-installation!
Or so I thought!

My install of XP went through so far and then the machine hung at 99%

I tried again, doing a repair installation. It hung again, only sooner!

I re-formatted my had disk again and zeroed it to ensure a totally clean hard disk, and attempted another install. This one got further, but it couldn't load a certain file. (Not sure if CD drive was playing up at this point)
I continued this process several more times, in varying concoctions, with or without re-formating, installing etc. In the end, after a desperate phonecall to one of my most knowledgeable friends, we decided perhaps a new hard disk was in order.

So, off I went, purchased a lovely 40gig hard drive, and installed that - retaining my other hard drive so I could contain my data on it.

Drive installed, fdisked, partitioned and formatted.
Still, Windows XP not playing. After another series of more futile attempts, and blue screens of death appearing more and more frequently - another desperate telephone call was made.

Perhaps memory might fix this one.

This was now Friday, I'd been working on attempting this simple install all week! My husband was going insane and couldn't understand why I was continuing with it. In my opinion, something so straightforward shouldn't take this long and I was sure the next attempt would work!

So, a lovely piece of memory was bought - twice the amount as I had - so, in theory, it should now glide through a new install. New hard drive, new memory!

Still no joy! I couldn't believe it. I must have tried installing another 10 times in varying degrees, getting so far - almost there, but not!

By Sunday night I had to admit defeat - not something I do lightly - but after a week of trying to get machine to play ball and it still not happening - I decided to call the professionals!

A faulty chip was probably the reason behind my inability to install Windows XP. I suggested perhaps an upgrade of my entire system may be the order of the day at this point - it was duly agreed that this may very well have to be the case.

So early next morning, computer delivered. By the evening - all fixed! new motherboard, processor, new hard drive all connected & working, second hard drive connected & working. Windows XP installed. Wonderful!!!!!

I wasn't allowed to pick up my machine that evening - but made an appointment early following morning to pick up my lovely computer.

It was lovely to get it back home and start re-instating all my software - of which there is quite an amount - but I am trying hard only to install the absolute essentials that I require.
I don't like being without my computer - but I will certainly put into practice a good backup procedure - just in case my machine should die on me again in the future!

So, if anyone else doesn't want to find themselves in a desperate situation - ALWAYS back up your work to somewhere safe - a CD, Zip disk, another hard drive or another computer if you are lucky enough to have your own network set up.
Do create yourself a windows boot up disk - this is ESSENTIAL! As it loads up the drivers for your CD rom, and floppy drive etc., so that you can install from CD's.

That's it for now folks!

Pauline.

Oh, how embarrasing!

2004-07-27T00:19:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,

I couldn't let this little incident pass by unmentioned.

Yesterday I decided to sort through a long outstanding pile of papers and file them or bin them accordingly. Amidst this little lot was an unopened pin number for one of my bank cards. As we've been receiving new pins / cards due to the new format of Chip & Pin it didn't seem amiss. In this instance though I hadn't received a card to tie in with the pin number. So I thought I would phone up my bank. (Telephone banking is wonderful! )

It was five past midnight - nothing like striking when the iron's hot!

I spoke to them and said I'd received details of a pin but hadn't received the card, could they tell me if they had sent one, or was it just a replacement pin number.
Whilst we were talking on the phone trying to ascertain what was what - the telephonist stated that there had been no requests for a re-issue of a card or pin number. I couldn't see an obvious date on the letter - and I jokingly suggested that perhaps it was the original pin number...

Oh, how many a word spoken in jest!!!

Whilst speaking on phone I scoured the letter a little further and lo and behold, I discovered a date 9/12/01 - can you believe it!!! I was mortified & got a fit of the giggles! The telephonist thought it was quite amusing too I must admit - so I'm glad I managed to brighten up his evening. For my par - my husband thought I was nuts! I was cracked up in a fit of the giggles for about half hour after! I just couldn't believe how stupid I had been!

Anyway, that's it for today, I thought I would share this with you as I thought it was quite amusing!

Thank you for stopping by - come back soon :)

PaulineA

Happy networking

2004-07-22T23:51:00.000+01:00

Hello again!

Hopefully my blog will flow a little better today.

Last night I had a couple of inspirational conversations courtesy of MSN with some ex colleagues and and old school friend of mine - both of whom are in the process of setting up their own business ventures.

Bouncing ideas off of one another was very stimulating and got me thinking about my own little venture - which would help one of theirs.

This evening, I attending an Everywoman Focus Group which was a network meeting for women entrepreneurs - in the process of starting or already running their own businesses. It was very motivational and inspiring to see all these other women doing their own thing, being enthusiastic and giving good advice based upon their own experiences.

I think I will be going to a few more of these types of meetings. Trying to run your own business from home can be quite a solitary venture so these kinds of things are wonderful.

For any of you ladies who may be reading this check out www.everywoman.co.uk lots of good advice. They run events all over the UK I believe.

From this evening's gathering I may, perhaps, even be lucky enough to get a small amount of work which will be really cool.

Well, that's it for tonight as I'm tired and it's past midnight already! Where does the time go to??

Come back soon.

Thank you for reading

PaulineA :)

Deep Purple / Purple Haze

2004-07-21T22:51:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,

Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote - it's been a manic few days doing lots of mystery shops - as many as 5 in one day! Phew!

Crazy crazy.

This week is a little calmer, but next week will be even better.

I met up with an old friend last week whilst meeting up with another friend - all of us ex-IBMers and all moved on to different pastures. Not necessarily greener - but just a different shade! So that was a pleasant end to an extremely hectic mystery shopping day!

Oh yes, the title of today's blog - Purple!

I dyed my hair again yesterday - roots needed doing etc., it took me ages & three shops of looking before I found the colour I wanted to use. Ultraviolet Brown by L'oreal. (I'm writing this down like this so I don't forget next time I go to do my hair - as I can never remember which one I used last - hopless!)

It came out lovely. You can't see the purple until I'm in light. Like a purple haze :)

If you know me you will know I adore the colour Purple, and if you don't, you do now!

I don't go overboard though I must hasten to add, and hubby will vouch for that.

I did find a website the other day www.purple.com - a totally purple page with and faq link right in the middle of it - which disappears after a few seconds so you have to be quick! Totall useless sight - but quite clever at the same time.

Ah, and also, talking of purple, I bought a fantastic double cd last week too - Purple Rainbows - a compilation of tracks by Deep Purple / Rainbow / and their offspring - Gillan, Whitesnake, Dio. Fantastic!! They don't make them like they used too - though the charts are changing it seems these days. The first ever concert I went to was Ian Gillan on his Magic Tour - it was fantastic!!! Portsmouth Guildhall - 1980something. Those were the days.

Well, that's it for now - writing not flowing so well today.

Come back again and I'll try to write a little sooner!

Byeeee

Dishwasher free!

2004-07-12T00:17:00.000+01:00

Hello!

What is she going on about this time? I hear you utter!

Well, the other week we ran out of dishwasher tablets - I hadn't budgeted well enough and/or forgot to order some during my last monthly shop - and I decided I was going to wait until my next monthly shopping delivery, rather than run out to the local shop & get some others to tide me over - so I reverted to the manual method of washing up!

Strangely enough, it hasn't been too bad!

The washing up doesn't seem to be piling up as much as I thought it would be - unlike the dishwasher pile. I need to explain, if I don't empty the dishwasher at night before I go to bed, I have to empty it first thing in the morning - but that is normally thwarted by my son wanting to 'help' and I am always in fear of having a reduced supply of plates and cups due to his over zealousness at 'placing' these particular items on our 'tiled' floor! (little poppet!)

Working the manual method, the washing up seems to get done a little more frequently (approximately 3 times a day), which means that I have an almost near full cupboard of crockery etc., at any time of the day! It's marvellous.

It would seem that these days anyway, I need to wash up alot of things by hand - my non-stick baking aids, and various other bits and pieces that aren't 'dishwasher proof' - so in fact, it's been quite good - and my kitchen has looked a whole lot tidier too - which can't be a bad thing!

It also means that I don't have a build up of tea stains any more on my teacups (something which I can't abide), and also now we have nice sparkling, tea-stain free teaspoons also. For some reason, dishwashing them never seems to get them completely clear of these stains.

I'm now considering (sorry Jon!) switching over the washing machine - which currently lives in our conservatory come utility room - with the dishwasher and saving the dishwasher for when we have lots of people around for special occasions etc.

I suspect we'll probably save a fortune in electric - as it will mean I can plumb in the washing machine to a hot & cold water supply at long last - rather than just the cold water fill it has at present. Also we won't have the running costs of the dishwasher going on at least once a day! (I will keep an eye on the meter and let you know about that one - though I'm sure Jon will post something on his money tips review).

Well, that's it for now. Please drop by again soon.

PaulineA

Christmas time, mistletoe & wine...

2004-07-09T23:50:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,

I know it's not even the start of the summer holidays yet but I'm already starting to think about christmas! (I thought I'd get in before the kids break up from school and the shops get in there!)

The reason for this, is that I am attempting to make presents this year - yes, you read it right - make! The old past times of knitting, embroidery & needlework, and perhaps some silk painting are being resurrected in our household in an attempt to try and a) save a bit of money b)get rid of some of the commercialism that surrounds us all 24-7.

When I was pregnant I knitted a few things for our little baby - to the surprise of so many! I was quite surprised myself at peoples reactions. I knitted my girls loads of little outfits and toys etc., and that was almost 20 years ago. I find it quite satisfying knowing that I have made something from scratch, and it may actually last a little longer than some of the shop things that are around.

I never got to teach my girls how to knit - perhaps one day they may want to know. But for now, I'll be making them their christmas pressies by hand. :) I have a winnie the Pooh to knit, a table cloth to embroider, and picture to cross stitch and probably a silk tie and a silk scarf or two to design and paint.

The theory is that if I start early enough, I will get everything finished by Christmas eve! Watch this space!!

Well, that's it for today, i've been embroidering a few white flowers on white fabric tonight and my eyes are tired and I've had a busy day.

Please come back soon.

Pauline. :)

Mums & babes vs public loos!

2004-07-07T00:08:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,

Having a bit of a grumble today I'm afraid.

If you are a mum (or dad even in this case) and you are out and about with your little one in tow - or in front in a pushchair! - there are times when you simply have to nip to the loo - not your little one, but yourself.

I was out and about today and came across some relatively nice looking loos - it was labelled up as having a baby changing room etc. Excellent - I thought. I went in to find it was just a baby changing room. I went to the main loos only to find the pushchair wouldn't fit into a cubicle (well it would, but I wouldn't be able to shut the door!) So I went along to the Tourist information office next door and asked if they had a key to the disabled toilets. No use. I needed to pay £3 deposit for the key, which I would get back on return of the key. Pretty useless to me as I didn't have any change left on me as I'd used that in the car park!

I was told I could go to a couple of department stores as they had loos I could use.

I trundled off to one of these stores, and after a ride up 4 floors in the lift (which my littlen really doesn't like) we cut through the restaurant - down a long narrow corridor with a very sharp bend in it (I wouldn't like to have had one of those double pushchairs - as there would not be a chance in hell of one of those getting down that corridor or around the corner!), when I came across the most humungously spacious ladies loos i've every come across - only to find that the pushchair wouldn't fit into any of the cubicles. I double checked the baby room - once again - no loo for the parent!! What are we supposed to do!

In the end I simply had to go, and had to park my little one just outside my loo door - hoping to god that no-one came and took him away - sounds over protective but there are alot of strange people in this world that will stop at nothing.

I read a note in the comments book in this particular stores' baby changing room and they too had commented on what I have just mentioned - and someone else had criticized them for saying this as this was quite a good one by most people's accounts!

I am more and more amazed every time I go out, with pushchair and child, at just how unfriendly this country is to us mums with children. We, who probably make up the bulk of daytime customers in most of these stores - and who have put up with unnecessary problems just in order to spend a penny.

In other countries (Norway for one) is far more child friendly. Every disabled loo is available for mums/dads & babes, they are equiped with pull down changing pods etc., and you can go to the loo as well.

I'm sure if some of these big stores were to be a little more mum & child friendly, they would encourage more people to come to them. It really wouldn't take that much.

That's it for today, I thought I would share this one as it's been bugging me all day today, and most days when I go out.

Apologies to those that find this post annoying - but tough - you try being a mum with a pushchair & you need to have a pee!!!

Please come back soon :)

Pauline.

I give up!

2004-07-01T23:45:00.000+01:00

Hello again,

I thought I would just tweak my Blog layout again this evening, just to tidy up a few little niggley bits - but - it has not gone as smoothly as I would like. I just change one small thing - say a graphic - fairly straightforward - and it throws the whole blog off course!

It has been a very frustrating evening.

No less frustrating than my day - so I guess it caps it off quite nicely!

That's all for today I'm afraid!
Apologies for my Blog's incompleteness - I'm sure I will fix the problem that's bugging me shortly - so please bear with me if when you look at it next time it may have slightly altered!

Let's hope I have a more fruitful day tomorrow - without getting a drenching - our lovely summer weather!

Bye for now

Please drop in again...

Pauline.

A change is as good as...

2004-07-01T00:11:00.000+01:00

...a rest - so they say!

So, apologies if you have noticed my webbylog format has changed yet again!

I discovered the blogger matrix yesterday, and so was inspired to do a little bit of tweaking tonight! Hence the change. It needs a few adjustments - but it's past midnight now so I will have a further play tomorrow night!

I must admit I've had much more fun doing this rather than tackling the ironing pile which is getting bigger by the week - yes week - I hate to think how many weeks worth of ironing has accumulated - I just can't face it when the weather is hot, or when there are other things more interesting to deal with. So, I'm currently ironing on as as required basis!

I used to be very good and dedicate Sunday evenings to ironing whilst watching "House of Elliot" but there doesn't seem to be anything interesting to watch on a Sunday night any more - so that certainly doesn't aid in my ironing stakes! I can't seem to get back into the swing of it these days.

Never mind - I'm sure it will all get tackled eventually!

So, apologies once again to those who really don't like change.

I personally quite like it - as a wee teenager I was forever switching my bedroom around. I still change the house around fairly regularly - you can ask my husband! (fellow blogger "newbiealert") I helps to shift energy and makes it feel like you're living somewhere new :)

Anyway, I've been "playing" for too long this evening and it's late and I have a busy day tomorrow - three mystery shops and a demo audit! Ending on another cliche - variety is the spice of life!

Never a dull moment in this household!

Until next time.

Thank you for visiting - please drop by again.

Pauline

The eagle has landed!

2004-06-27T21:49:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,

Well, today I got the phone call that I was waiting for - my daughter had made it to singapore ok! Not so her luggage! That, apparently, is on it's way to Melbourne!
I hope this isn't an indicator of the rest of her adventure.
Hopefully though, it will be delivered to her tomorrow, before she heads of to Kuala Lumpur, otherwise, they are going to have to deliver it to them there!
Credit due though, the airline in question, did give them 200 singapore dollars each to get themselves some of the necessaries to tide them over until their luggage re-appears. So that can't be all bad!

I've had a strange weekend, quite stressful emotionally, but I'm sure I will survive. It's not every day one waves their daughter off, knowing that they probably won't see her for a whole year. Being a pisces, I'm afraid I find these kinds of things quite difficult.

Well, I think that is all I am going to write this evening - I have a pounding headache and need a soak in the bath.

Thank you for reading, please drop by again. :)

Pauline

She has flown

2004-06-26T22:53:00.000+01:00

Hi folks,

Today has been a strange day.

My youngest daughter is no on a plane flying halfway around the world to Australia for her year long adventure.

I decided to cash some money out and change it for her into Australian Dollars so that I knew she would have a reasonable amount of money on her for when she got to Perth. Whilst I was in the travel agents sorting this out I was fine until I asked the clerk how easy it was to send money out to Australia. Fortunately she explained things quite quickly and succinctly, as I had to do a runner as I could feel the tears welling up.

Bugger, here they go again!

This coming year will be a strange one I feel.

This time tomorrow my little girl will be in Singapore before she makes a short stop at my father's in Kuala Lumpur.

In a week's time that's when the real worries will probably set in, as that's when they head to Perth for the first leg of their journey.

I helped her set up her own Blog yesterday, so it will be easier for her to keep in touch with everyone - I will add a link later (Once I've vetted her content!! just in case!)
It will give me peace of mind too :)

Well, that's it for today I'm afraid - I need an early night - it's been a tiring day emotionally.

Please come back soon!

Pauline.

Flying the nest

2004-06-24T22:31:00.000+01:00

Hello,

Well, it's two days to go now before the youngest of my two daughters flys off to Australia for a whole year! She is only 18, nearly 19, but as her mum I will be worrying about her from the minute she steps through the customs gate until she lands on the tarmac back in England!

She is travelling with another girl friend, and they have carefully planned their route all through the land of Oz, starting in Perth and working their way around ending up in Cairns.

She is very brave to be off on this adventure, and also very lucky to have this opportunity. It never crossed my mind when I was her age to go travelling so far afield. I was just about married when I was her age (I first married at 18 1/2), it didn't seem that young back then - but looking back at my girls now, I was incredibly young and very naive.

Fortunately my youngest daughter is much more worldly wise than I ever was at 18, she handles herself well, and won't take too much grief from anyone. Unlike me, who wouldn't have said boo to a goose!

She is not scared of confrontation and will stand up for what she believes in especially if someone is unfairly treated.

She has grown into a very independent, caring young woman - she knows her mind, and what she wants to do in life (I'm still trying to work out what I want to do!). So, I guess, despite her strange childhood / growing up, she has turned out amazingly well balanced and strong.

I do hope she returns from Australia, there is always that possibility that she will have such a wonderful time she may not want to return. I will have to cross that bridge if it should ever happen.

I will miss her when she is away - having to pick her up from Bournemouth cos she can't afford the train / bus fare - her stories of drunken friends and late nights/early mornings, and the fuss she makes of her little brother (who will have changed so much by the time she comes home - but thank goodness for the internet!)

Well, that's it for today, it's just 48 hours before my little girl flys off on her big adventure - all I can do is be here for her when she needs me.

Come back soon

Pauline.

I'm free!

2004-06-20T22:04:00.000+01:00

Hello folks!
It's been a little while since my last Blog I'm afraid, but I've been so busy!

For nearly two weeks now I have been free of my anti depressants - which I've been prescribed on and off for the last couple of years - instigated by incredible work pressures, stupid deadlines, working all hours, being too hardworking and concientious and not being allowed to tell management to stuff it!

I've watched my mother for as long as I can remember be on anti depressants, including valium, librium, triptazol, and nowadays seroxat.
I struggled for several months before succumbing to the 'dreaded' anti-d's as I didn't want to follow the path of my mother. In my eyes it showed a weakness - I was stronger than that - I could manage.
But, after mornings of tears - as I couldn't face work - waking up at 4am in the morning and not being able to sleep again, aching from head to toe almost on a daily basis (I called this my stress ache - it feels like the aches you get with flu but with none of the other flu symptoms), crying all over the place over the slightest thing and just generally feeling overwhelmed - I decided to give in.

I was started off on Citalapram (10mg) but I wasn't sure I could tell a difference. Though my husband said there was an improvement - at least I wasn't crying all over the place. I was signed off from work for a few weeks, which turned into a couple of months. I underwent some counselling at The Priory working with cognitive behaviour - it was quite reassuring to know that other people were in similar positions (the strange thing was that half of the attendees there were in the same company that I was!) Most of the time I felt I was doing ok after one of these sessions as others seemed to be far worse than I was.
The head psychiatrist suggested that I take some sleeping tablets tohelp me sleep, as sleep was evading me for quite a while - causing me my stress ache as I now realise - I tried these once or twice - but felt so zombified the following day until lunch time and had a horrible metallic taste in my mouth I decided to quit taking these as they couldn't be doing me any good.

It was just as well I did stop taking these particular sleeping tablets as I found out I was pregnant not long after and they state you're not to take them when you are so!

I perservered with the citalapram - though I didn't feel like they were doing much. I didn't feel like doing too much, daytime tv became a sanctuary, I didn't see many people - didn't want to see many people. My husband tried to get me to go out - which I normally did under protest - but as I couldn't drink (due to the tablets) and it seemed such an effort to go out - it seemed pointless. But I did and it was nice to get out of the house.

I went back to work for a couple of weeks, but after wishing myself to have a car accident on the way to or from work one day, I knew I couldn't continue - and got signed off indefinitely.

My dosage was increased to 20mg, but still I couldn't tell any difference - my only measure was whether I was crying or not! I still had my 'stress ache' and I still wasn't sleeping all that well. Some energy did come back every now and then though, as I managed to re-decorate most of the house.

With a little one on the way, I had a new focus in my life - so to this day both me and my husband see this as our saving grace. It was hard work being pregnant this time - it was 17 years since I'd been there last - plus with the addition of 'depression' or 'work related stress' it was quite a toll on my poor old bod!

We had a trip to Norway to visit my husband's family which was lovely - we drove over and I got to see alot of Norway's lovely mountains in the spring time. Apart from the engine room on the ship catching fire in the middle of the night and us being stuck in the middle of the North Sea - it was a very nice relaxing holiday! Though, I inadvertently misplaced my anti-d's at my brother-in-laws house before we set off on the second leg of our journey - and therefore ended up coming off my anti-d's cold turkey.

I would not recommend it!

I put most of my terrible feelings down to low blood pressure, not eating enough, and being pregnant! I was feeling swimmy and lightheaded sometimes after moving just a little. I did phone my doctor whilst I was away to check with him and he clarified that it could well be withdrawal from the anti-d's. I felt terrible - but having gone through it, I decided - when I did find my tablets again - that I wasn't going to go back onto them. Also, with the fact that I was pregnant - I didn't really want my child to come out dependent on anti-d's!

During the summer of my pregnancy, the company I was working for (or rather signed off from) were offering voluntary redundancies - so I jumped at the chance. The timing was perfect. A huge weight lifted from my shoulders. I didn't have to go back!

I was fine after this - did lots around the house, got a bit more enthusiasm back for some things that I enjoyed. I was looking forward to the birth of our baby!

Everything was fine for well over a year, and then things started getting on top of me. My redundancy money was coming to the end, I couldn't see a way of earning money myself to add to the pot - I couldn't see myself working for a large corporation again - my self esteem was incredibly low. I started feeling worthless, useless etc., sleep was becoming disturbed, and my stress aches were returning. I saw my doctor, burst into tears in her office and she decided I was depressed and put be on anti-d's again - though I asked specifically for seroxat this time as i'd heard some good stories (and bad!).

I think it made a difference - I didn't worry quite so much - I managed to find an evening job which I could work around little'n - but I ended up sleeping less - 3 hours hard cleaning put me into hyper mode and I couldn't get to sleep for ages. 5 nights a week for about 3 months I kept this up but had to give up as I couldn't cope with the not sleeping!

I started off on 20mg of Seroxat, and a few months ago I decided to cut it down in half. Wow! What a difference that half made! My energy levels increased dramatically - my enthusiasm came back for doing things. I hadn't been going out much or seeing people again - and it was a bit unfair on our little boy as he really needed to get out and meet other people. It was a remarkable change. I started taking a bit more care around the house etc.

Over the last couple of months I've been slowly decreasing my dosage from 10mg down to zero. I found a website (i will have to find the link again for it) which gave me instructions and advice on how to come off this very powerful anti-d. I tried doing this too fast and I felt like death warmed up! Horrendous. Felt as though I was going to pass out after the slightest movements. I didn't feel comfortable walking to the shops, driving, anything! So I had to start back again at 10mg and reduced by half a miligram every week. A long slow process, but it worked. I've now been free for almost two weeks and feel fantastic!

My energy has soared. I'm sleeping ok. My husband can't understand it! I'm working on the computer until midnight nearly every night. I'm in the process of pushing my business forward, and I'm getting back into my Avon business and just taken on a couple more roads, plus I'm looking forward to doing my mystery shops once more.

It has been a strange journey. I have become a little more aware of my limitations - most of the time. When my 'stress ache' appears I know I've been overdoing it and will give the housework a miss for a day or two and try to get an early night to re-charge the batteries!

I hope I haven't gone on too much, but once I started this Blog it kind of flowed... and flowed... who knows, perhaps it may even help someone out there who is / has experiencing/ed the same or something similar.
There is an end to it - you just have to be a little patient - your partner / family have to be alot patient - Rome wasn't built in a day - and it does sometimes feel like it's a very long tunnel to get through -but get through it you will. :)

Thank you for reading. Please drop by again soon - hopefully I'll be able to get a few more blogs up this week!

2004-06-09T00:21:00.000+01:00

My lovely little boy!

First day memories

2004-06-08T23:23:00.000+01:00

Hi folks,
This evening I've been having a trip down memory lane!

I decided to check out my old schools on the Friends Reunited website and see if there were any more names I could recognise. I have both my Junior school and Senior schools linked in, but I didn't get much further than my Senior school this evening. I was trawling through some of the messages that had been left by past pupils regarding their memories, and one of the categories was "your first day".

I can distinctly remember mine, so I'm afraid I will bore you with the details as they were quite, shall we say, interesting!

To start at the beginning...

I used to live next door to two brothers, and next door to them, were three brothers and a sister. For the most part, we were all of similar ages, so we all used to hang about together, go exploring, go on picnics up at the local recreation ground, or go to the woods (where we weren't supposed to go to, but we were kids and did anyway!) Well, one time we went down the woods we discovered a fantastic branch that had fallen off and I decided to turn it into a catapult. I think the others found twigs to make theirs from! So, a few days later, towards the end of the summer holidays, we decided to go down to the woods to test them out.
When we got there, there were a couple of other lads down there, who seemed to be trying to stir us up a bit, so as we were 'armed' we decided to defend our territory, as we hadn't seen them before - so we got the chance to use our catapults - and we did!
The following week when I got to my new school, we were all sitting in the main hall waiting to be allocated our classes, when...
oh no!!!...
One of the lads who I'd been targetting was only being allocated into my class!!
How embarassing! I was mortified!
Needless to say though, we got on ok - though I think we kept our distance through most of school...
just in case!

I will have to post a more abbreviated version of this story up on the web site, but I thought I would share it with you guys first!

Hope I haven't bored you, or gone on too long (apparently yesterday's blog seemed to draw some unrequested attention in one of the forum's my husband frequents - so apologies to that person if he should read tonight's Blog!)

Please drop by again soon.

Weapons of war

2004-06-07T21:48:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,
Over the bank holiday weekend, we visited one of our local historical armaments - Fort Nelson - to see re-enactments from one of the Charles' era's (I'm afraid I forget which one!). It was interesting to walk around the fort, walking down the tunnels and getting a feeling for the place.

In the courtyard of the grounds there was a large undercover display of military equipment of the large variety, a whole series of canons, tanks etc. Quite an impressive array.

As I was walking around reading some of the details about the exhibits, whilst pushing my little one in his pushchair, I was overcome with an immense feeling of sadness & melancholy (for want of a better description), as the thought occurred to me, that these actual machines, tanks, anti-aircraft missiles, etc., had been used by real people - many of whom may not actually be around today, due to their having been killed in action, by whoever. These pieces of cold, unfriendly metal, could have been the last things some of these people saw in their last moments.

Needless to say I headed out rather quickly from the display, feeling quite agitated for the rest of the day, with thoughts going back to those people who perhaps had lost their lives.

This weekend, I was in a Sainsbury's car park, and with all the D-Day memorial happenings - I was fortunate to see the flyover of a Lancaster bomber and I think two Spitfires. It was certainly a most impressive sight and sound - but once again, it caused quite an overwhelming feeling again, actually bringing tears to my eyes, as I was forced to think of the people who had fought and lost their lives.

Also, last week I was in a charity shop, and there were two little old ladies who were reminising from when they were children, and could remember their neighbours
sons and husbands going to war 7 never coming back, one of whom had a very young baby at the time.

All these things seem to, I feel, put our existence into some perspective. We are lucky to be here, and we really should think about other ways of dealing with dispute - not fighting & killing people, they all belong to someone somewhere - they are all sons, daughters, mothers or fathers of someone.

Apologies for this rather downbeat Blog today, but it's been weighing on my mind.

Please do come back !

Tooth hurty :(

2004-06-03T20:46:00.000+01:00

Hello,
It's been a few days since I've written a Blog but time seems to have flown by until today.
Over the last couple of days I've been getting niggling toothache - bearable with painkillers - until this morning. Painkillers didn't touch it. So I made an appointment to see my dentist - initially for tomorrow - but after a couple of hours of unsubsiding pain, I changed it to this afternoon! My goodness, how slowly the clock went today!

I have a relatively high pain threshold - and can normally go for weeks without giving in to the pain (toothache) but this time - it was excrutiating (and still is I hasten to add).

I have always been incredibly nervous when it comes to dentists. Hence the serious procrastinating I have done over the years. This fear probably came about when I had my first filling at the age of 16. I think I only needed a small filling - but I was terrified. The dentist did nothing to re-assure me, and proceeded his handywork - without an injection. BIG MISTAKE!!!
I pushed him away several times to which he got very annoyed with me. Hence an ingrained fear of dentists.

Up until perhaps a year or so ago, every time I needed to go to the dentist, the anxiety would build up to such a point that I wouldn't be able to swallow properly for days beforehand. Once I was in the dentists waiting room - my hands would go cold, my stomach would be doing somersaults and I would be feeling a nervous wreck. Once in the dentists chair - well, hand clenched onto the arms of the chair - talk about a white knuckle ride! Terrified.

I have been lucky the last couple of dentists I have had as they have been quite patient with me. I always make them explain everything they are doing as they are going so I know what to expect. My current dentist is wonderful - he always makes sure I am comfortable with what he is doing. Always makes sure I can't feel anything before he needs to do any work. He explains everything to me. And doesn't make me feel like a complete whimp! I have even managed to cope with an extraction some months ago! I was sooo nervous it was unbelievable. But when it came down to it - it was over in a jiffy - amazing!

This time though - he couldn't do too much for me today as there is an abcess - this is definitely worse than toothache as painkillers don't seem to touch it. But he's dosed me up with antibiotics, which should start to kick in about this time tomorrow. In the meantime I'm dosing up with painkillers too - in the hopes that they may just decide to help numb the pain a little. The throbbing is unreal. I can't hardly eat anything as my tooth is just too sensitive to even the slightest amount of pressure.

One way of losing weight I suppose - but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone!

Well, that's it for now - but a big thank you to my lovely dentist for making my dentistry experience a whole lot better now than it was for me at 16. And to my dentist who gave me my first filling - B******!

Come back again soon :)

Oh mummy, guinea pig food not so nice :(

2004-05-31T22:47:00.000+01:00

Hi folks,

Just a short Blog today. Yesterday my little boy was not at all well, he had a temperature of approximately 102, he was very hot basically, and was very difficult to keep happy. It is very rare for him to sit still for more than 10 minutes, but he was laid out on the sofa for some time.

He is full of beans today - a complete contrast to yesterday.

I can only put his illness down to his eating a whole load of guinea pig food and / or drinking from the rabbit's water container. :(

Unfortunately I don't have eyes in the back of my head, and don't have x-ray vision to see through walls in order to ensure my little boy isn't doing things that he shouldn't be doing - but, suffice it to say, I will be making sure he can't access the guinea pig food any more.

A warning to be had then I guess, make sure all your pet food is well stashed away, as you don't want little ones eating it and making themselves ill.

That's all for now.

Please drop by again soon.

A giant leap of faith

2004-05-30T23:53:00.000+01:00

Hello,

Over the last few weeks and months, I have been trying to decide what I want to do.

That age old question "What do you want to do when you grow up?" still doesn't have an answer! In times gone by, I wanted to be an air hostess, possibly a nurse, and definitely a music teacher. As the years went by, becoming an air hostess at the time meant you had to be a certain height and you had to swim - i'm 5ft 4 & can't swim. Nursing - not sure what happened to that idea! At the time I was studying my music A levels, music was not considered important enough on the curriculum and therefore it felt as though there was a slim possibility of me making it through so I dropped it and did secretarial studies instead.

I have done various things in my working life - Assistant Bank Manager's secretary - climbing through the ranks from typist upwards. Publishing assistant for a local free newspaper. Shop assistant - all for about 3 weeks in total for two different shops (one only lasted one day). A relief typist for a Bank. Data entry clerk for about a week. Communications specialist covering all kinds of wonderful things including working with computers, schools, people, conferences, and ultimately working on the internet creating websites & developing educational software. I have trained in alternative therapies and am a qualified masseuse/aromatherapist and reiki practitioner.

So, a few bows on my buckles.

Last weekend we spontaneously went out for the day, making the most of the sunshine and to prize my husband away from his computer during the daytime :)

After we'd visited a local country park and were heading for home, I saw a signpost to an old country house and decided that I'd like to see it, as I hadn't done so before. On the way in to the site we saw some signs advertising offices to let in the vicinity of the main house.

It was a truly awe-inspiring location. A lovely old house reminiscent of my days working at IBM Hursley Park. Fantastic grounds, fantastic views, cobbled courtyard, tea rooms, garden centre, need I say more.

Well, on the way home I started thinking about the possibilities of having one of these offices - it would be perfect for a couple of business ventures, and perhaps, I could even run them both at the same time or rather in the same premises.

A location such as this was would most certainly lead easily to the two ideas I had in mind - DTP & Internet publishing and Massage/Aromatherapy practice.

A couple of days after visiting the location I picked up the courage to phone and enquire about the offices - so I'm off to see them next week!

Now, the question is, do I have the confidence in myself that I can make either or both of these ventures work in such an idyllic location? I will need to do my research carefully I guess - make sure that certain markets are available and that people would want to come out to such a place.

I have been asking myself alot of questions this week - but I will aim to be practical and logical in my decision - starting first with thinking about a business plan in order to think carefully about all the important things I need to think about. I already have a few interesting ideas about what I could do with regards to the massage side of the business.

If I haven't bored you too much, I will endeavour to put some updates here in my Blogs in order to chart my progress and my decisions etc. There is alot to think about, rent, location, clients, child care, phone costs etc., etc.

Plenty of food for thought.

I don't think I'll be going hungry for a while!

Come back soon and I'll let you know which direction I decide to choose.

Thank you for reading.

I'm an inbetweenie!

2004-05-30T23:03:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,

Yesterday I finally got around to returning a pair of jeans to the shop where I had previously purchased them - I should have tried them on first, but when you have a toddler in a pushchair in a clothes shop, not a good idea - but they looked fine - size 14, wonderful! When I did try them on at home a few hours later they were just too tight - yet another pair of jeans I had bought at the same time, also a size 14, fitted perfectly!

I managed to swap the returned jeans for the next size up, and did try them on this time as I had pushchair freedom as little'n was having his nap at home whilst his daddy was babysitting :)

Whilst I was in the shop I did need to get another pair of trousers for my catering job, and found a lovely pair of black trousers, with a little pink belt, and erred on the side of caution and opted for a size 16 (but didn't try them on as the changing rooms were getting rather manic by this time). I did try them at home though, somewhat later, only to find...

they were too flippin small!!!!

There was not a hell's chance these were going to do up. I checked the labels, card & fabric - yep, they said 16. I tried on an old black pair of trousers of similar style which are a 14 - and they managed to do up ok - so what on earth is wrong with these?!

Another trip to the shop i'm afraid.

How can the same size differ so much? Talk about getting a complex on size issues.

I'm a little bigger than a 14, but not quite a 16, so I guess that makes me a 15. If I follow bra size calculations i'm a 39, but they don't exist, so do I opt for a 38 or go for a larger 40? There is nowhere that I have found that make allowances for this little differences in size.

For the owner of these sizes it's quite important, as you're either feeling too frumpy or overweight, with clothes either being just a little too small and feeling uncomfortable or having to pull your trousers up every few minutes as they are too big!

Perhaps I am shopping in the wrong shops and have to seek out the more expensive ones - but I don't earn very much so have to make the pennies stretch that little bit further - shame some of the clothes don't stretch as far as they are supposed to!

If anyone knows of anyone who makes size 39 bra's or size 15 clothes - please let me know :)

Please come back soon

My aching aching feet!

2004-05-29T23:53:00.001+01:00

Hi,
Well, it's been a long day, I've just come home from working one of my part time jobs with a local catering company, and my feet are killing me!

My heart goes out to all those bar staff that work in pubs on Friday & Saturday nights!

I worked from 7.30 through to 11.30 tonight working the drinks at a private party. My goodness me! Don't people drink alot when they don't have to pay for them.
I must have opened about 20 bottles or more of champagne, and equally as many bottles of wine. My poor hands from de-corking all those bottles, my poor feet from standing constantly, any my poor ears from trying to hear people's orders over and above the noise of the music!

How do proper bar staff manage it?

I am so thankful it wasn't a paying bar - that would have been too difficult.

Now I think I know how my eldest daughter feels - though I suspect she works longer hours as it's a university bar - and she has to take money! No wonder she is always tired!

Well, I am going to get some well earned sleep tonight so good bye for now and I'll write another blog shortly.

:)

Yummy, Yummy, guinea pig food mummy!

2004-05-29T23:53:00.000+01:00

Hello again...

Well, what can I say - you would think we don't feed our little boy. Today, he was 'helping' me clean out our guinea pig and my mum's two rabbits who are holidaying with us through the summer. I had to go and do something in the kitchen and left little'n out in the garden - I came back outside to find him stuffing his face with guinea pig food. Whole handfuls of it!

Later on, whilst I was having a chat with my hubby, I looked over only to find our little boy on his knees, drinking from the rabbits water thing through the cage! (I have one pointing outwards & one inwards, so they get to drink whilst they are out and about in the garden and Thomas doesn't get into the hutch!)

I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised, I remember when I was younger, both me and my brother used to raid the larder for the cat biscuits (which were really dog biscuits - round ones, square ones & triangular ones in different colours) and eat them - as we weren't allowed biscuits very often - so we improvised! It did us no harm I guess - my brother is nearly 40 now and he doesn't have a single filling - so I guess the calcium in those biscuits must have helped somewhat. I, on the other hand, don't seem to have faired quite so well, but I guess that probably comes from having given birth to three children & between them they have kindly drained alot of my own calcium resources. (That's my theory anyway!)

I don't think eating the guinea pig food will do him too much harm - but I will be keeping a close eye on him over the next few days in case he gets a particular liking for all things green & leafy!

That's all for now folks.

Thank you for reading.

There's a worm at the bottom of the garden...

2004-05-26T23:17:00.000+01:00

... and his name is wiggly woo

Do you ever have one of those days when you get a tune into your head and it just won't disappear?

Well, courtesy of CBeebies - I have a tune, or two in my head today that simply won't disappear.

....I'm a tot, je suis en tot, tilly, tom & Tiny, we're the tots from tots tv, 1,2 3...

Oh no! Not another one.

Too much children's tv for me I think!

I swore when I was expecting that my child wouldn't succumb to The Tweenies & The Teletubbies. My little boy loves them - he dances & claps when they are on, laughs at things they do - so how can I refuse?
He does get more serious tv - he seems to love Blue Peter, already at this early age, (1 1/2), together with Newsround - which is good as it's the only news programme these days I will subject myself too.
Come Christmas I can see myself getting out some wire hangers & tinsel & making the advent candle thing, as have so many generations before.

Well, only a short blog today i'm afraid - trying to get these tunes out of my head and so am going to go and listen to something relaxing & calming.

Bye for now...

...Bob the builder
Can we fix it?
Bob the builder
Yes we can!!!

A change is as good as a rest...

2004-05-25T23:27:00.000+01:00

so they say!

Hello again.

It's been a busy old day today - after a weekend of deliberating I decided to change my domain hosting service for one that could offer me a whole lot more, for a whole lot less - so that can't be bad. So, today, I've been busy setting up all the bits & pieces relating to my new account & dealing with my old account. It's amazing how different two companies can be when it comes to dealing with customers needs.

This evening i've been busy uploading all my website files etc., (it's still going strong!) in readiness for when the domain gets fully transfered across. Details will follow in a later blog.

I also decided on the spur of the moment to change the lounge around - making a nice space for my little boy to play without walking into the table all the time!

Bit of a shock though for my husband when he came home this afternoon! I really should warn him. He's come home to whole rooms been re-decorated in the past without so much as a warning other than asking him what colour he prefers - then - hey presto - job done!

Strike whilst the iron's hot. Seize the day.

I'm not very good at being idle - I nearly always have to be doing something or other.

I changed the bedroom around at the weekend - fed up with having to squeeze around the bed in order to get in or out of the room. An odd shaped room really, but it works better now.

I'm also in the process of re-vamping the garden - so last week the conservatory was painted, and the patio cemented up. Still working on demolishing the wretched pond - such a mammoth job - but then it is a most humungous fish pond! Goodness knows what kind of fish lived in it - we inherited the remnants of the pond when we bought the house and it has been a continual eye-sore for nearly three years since we moved here. It won't be here much past the end of the summer though I can tell you that for nothing!

I'm ultimately trying to make the garden as child friendly as I possibly can - on as little money as possible. It may take a little while though.

Anyway, change...
it is a marvellous thing - keeps you on your toes, stops things getting stale.

Must go now, I have a video to review for some market research company - I was accosted in the shopping centre last week - will get quized on it tomorrow!

Thank you for reading. :)

Streaky golden brown!

2004-05-24T21:52:00.000+01:00

Hello again...
Well, yesterday I had this brilliant idea of saving my legs from all the pain of sunburn & be a good girl and be sun savvy.
I had recently purchased a tube of some self tanning cream and thought I would give it a go in an attempt to try and match my legs to my arms - which have gone a lovely shade of brown due to pushing little'n around in his pushchair.

I had a lovely soak in the bath, used a body polisher (for the uninitiated - a gel with gritty bits in it!) - to make sure my skin was nice & smooth in order to give the self tanning cream a better finish.

I opened the tube up and was confronted with a very runny semi transparent cream. So, as the instructions on the label, massaging it all in, making sure everywhere was covered, and trying to spread the invisible lotion as evenly as I could.

Ok, after about five minutes - all done - lotion all massaged in nicely on both legs. And, as stated on bottle, hands washed thoroughly.

Waiting a couple of hours before going to bed - my legs looked as though they were a nice shade of light golden brown - matching my feet which are naturally tanned due to running around in bare feet or sandals. It was subtle enough not to stand out like a sore thumb - wonderful!

So I thought...

Eeeeeek.

Got up this morning and inspected the light golden brown legs only to find that they were now orange & streaky!!!!!

How on earth do you fix this!

Whilst little'n was having his breakfast I was frantically trying to use baby wipes to tone down the worst dark patches in the hopes that I'd be able to remove some of the obvious 'self tanning' clues! Not a chance! Will have to soak in the bath for a few hours this evening / tonight in an effort to get more of this stuff removed - I think perhaps that body polisher will come into a league of it's own!

For a while I was thinking perhaps I should add some more lotion to the missing patches in an effort to blend in - but I fear that would look even worse - what if I accidentally went over bits that had taken properly - then I'd get another darker patch :(

Wearing a skirt this week is well & truly out of the window - not sure I can even wear my cropped trousers yet - perhaps in a few days.

Not sure I am going to try this one again. Thank goodness I didn't try the one for my face!!! I think I will stick with the lilly white legs for a little bit longer.

That's it for tonight - I need to get into that bath & have a serious soak & a scrub!

Thank you for reading - please stop by again. :)

The curse of the stairgate!

2004-05-22T23:09:00.000+01:00

Hi Folks,
I don't know if there is anyone out there reading any of this, but if you're a parent you may be able to empathise.

Like all 'good' parents we installed a stairgate at the bottom of our stairs. It took a while initially to find a stairgate that actually fitted the width of our stairs correctly. They all seemed to be either too small and would need to have some extensions added, which would need to be sent away for, or too big & wouldn't fit the gap.

Our first stairgate seemed to fit relatively well, with the aid of some blocks to help pack out any differences. It seemed secure enough - though our walls are incredibly hard to drill into if you don't have a powered hammer drill (which we don't!) A couple of months down the line - the stairgate seemed to work it's way out of the wall fixtures, becoming wobbly & hanging out of the wall. We tried re-siting it - but we were limited as to where we could actually place the wretched thing as the banisters don't go right down to the bottom of the stairs, but to the second step.

During the lifetime of this stairgate, I had invested in a different type of stairgate so I could keep little'n from escaping into the conservatory / garden from the kitchen. I decided upon one of those expandable fit ones that don't need any fixtures or fittings. Saying that though, I did have to improvise slightly and add some blocks to allow the stairgate to actually fit correctly.

Well, back to the first stairgate - pulling my hair out with the stairgate now coming out of the wall, and little'n wiggling the gate even more, I decided to use my second stairgate (the one in the kitchen) in place of the first stairgate. Hurrah, it fitted!
But, on tightening up the screwable fixings, I could see the stair banister was being pushed away from the stairs! Eeeeeek.

I've been able to ignore that up until now. The stairgate now has suddenly decided to become loose, and therefore I have needed to tighten it up again - but now this is pushing the bannister even further away from the stairs now.

We have another stairgate of the same type at the top of the stairs - but that one doesn't appear to be doing any damage (as yet).

It seems that these two stairgates are in a conspiracy between them! Each time I have to go up or down the stairs, one or the other of them always seems to give me a bruise somewhere on my thigh, no matter which way I go through them, they get me every time!

So, should I save my legs or my stairs?!

Besides, were stairgates around when I was small?? How did other parents manage before stairgates were invented? When were they invented?

Perhaps I should teach my little one how to come down the stairs safely, then I can do away with the wretched things! He's almost got the hang of it, but not quite.

I think I will have to suffer for another couple of months at least!

Thank you for reading. :)

Karma Karma Chameleon

2004-05-20T22:16:00.000+01:00

Hello!
Well, it's that time again - to change my hair colour :)
Over the years I think I must have gone through pretty much most shades, apart from shocking pink & purple - and I haven't quite gotten to the blue rinse just yet :)

I thought I'd try out one of those kits where you get the highlights included as well included. Not for the novice - but as I've had years of experience it wasn't too bad. Result was good though - phew!

I've only had one serious disaster - going from dark brown to blonde in one sweep was not the smartest move, ending up with blonde, orange and green patches! Fortunately I had a hat which gave good coverage in order for me to get to the chemist & purchase another colour to sort out the damage.
Fortunately the colour covered it all rather nicely - but it seemed a bit of a waste of a morning! My daughters thought it was hilarious at the time.

I can remember yonks ago, when my mother did something similar - only her hair was alot longer - she had dark brown hair too & tried going blonde - only she ended up looking like a carrot! Bright orange! Dad was sent out that time to get the dye to change it back! Oh, how me and my brother laughed - up in our rooms!

Well, that's all for today. I will have to see what evolves tomorrow. :)

bye for now.

How clean is your house?!

2004-05-19T23:56:00.000+01:00

Hello again.
I managed to catch Kim & Aggie on the box tonight in their fantastic programme 'How Clean is your house?'. It never ceases to amaze me how absolutely disgusting some of these people's houses are! Now, my house is not particularly tidy (though I'm always working on it) - but some of these are just gross! So much muck & filth. How can they live like they do???
Most is just sheer laziness or the fact that perhaps they had never been taught how to do some of the basics - like washing up, or hoovering!

I did treat myself to the book that accompanies the series and gives lots of tips on cleaning etc., and little short cuts - so, needless to say, I've been frantically going through various rooms in the house trying to make sure everything is lovely & clean!

Though, having a toddler in the house, I do find it quite difficult to keep the house spotless - although at present, the army of ants which are appearing in their single marching line is a good incentive at the moment to make sure there isn't too much lying around!

Well, it's midnight and I have to get little'n off to the nursery tomorrow and try to get there on time for a change, though there is a rule now that car's aren't supposed to drive in through the school grounds until after 9.15 - which makes this a real nuisance as a few yards of walking with a little one can take an eternity! I'm sure I'll manage though - nearly always do :)

Until next time folks ~~~

My First Blog!

2004-05-18T20:39:00.000+01:00

Where do I start?! My husband has been going on about this Blog & that Blog and so I thought I might check it out - so hey presto - I now have my own Blog!

I hope readers may find my postings interesting.

I was wondering last night what I would put in my first Blog. Two years ago yesterday I was 4 months pregnant & travelling on a DFDS ferry from Newcastle to Kristiansand, Norway, with my (Norwegian) husband, which decided to have an engine fire in the middle of the North Sea in the middle of the night! Not my idea of fun - as soon as didn't hear that 'humming' noise you get on ferries any more - I knew something was wrong. A few minutes later a tanoi explained that there was an engine room fire & further instructions would be given. I got dressed rather quickly and waited for the next message - at which point - my husband had never seen me move quite so fast - headed for the nearest fire exit. It was not a pleasant experience - not the worst I've ever experienced I hasten to add, but not one I wish to repeat. So, that was how we celebrated the Norwegian Independence day merging into my husband's birthday. We won't forget that one in a hurry.

So, this year and no ferries & no fires, I'm extremely glad to report. We celebrated Norways national day yesterday in the style of my husband's childhood memories - hot dogs & icecream - which our 1 and a half year old son seemed to appreciate - though he still quite hasn't got the hang of the ice cream part yet - he eats the cones & leaves the ice cream!

Today, I was busy preparing some Norwegian treats for my husband's birthday, Tournekake & waffles! Yum yum :)

Well, I now have 10 minutes to build a web site for my mother's holiday cottage, before Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares begins - or perhaps I should wait until after the programme - do it a bit more justice. Hmmm - I think I'd better do it later - Gordon Ramsey is just too good to miss!