Happy Halloween!

The week just gone has gone by in a blink of an eye but I don’t mind much it’s a step nearer to our holiday; I can’t say it’s been a terribly exciting one but I seemed to have busy on one project or another.  On Wednesday we drove down to the village of Milton, just the other side of Cambridge to meet up with step dad John and Marie to say, what we thought was our last goodbye before they cross the channel next week in their campervan to spend the winter in La Manga in Spain.  We met at The White Horse at midday for lunch, I know they don’t normally do ‘lunch’ but we do eat our main meal at midday (it’s so much better for you by the way) so both John and Marie went along.   As we were chatting and I was telling them about our plan to give Georgina the red Ford KA, step dad suggested that I might perhaps want to borrow their silver Ford Fiesta, because, after all it was only going to sit in their drive for 4 months over the winter.  Well, naturally, I didn’t have to think too hard before saying “yes please”!!!  Me and Phil had talked, long and hard, about deciding to give the KA to Georgina and had planned just to make do with the Land Rover, but whilst, it would be saving us money just having the one car, I had my reservations.  I don’t find it easy driving the Freelander, much preferring a little car, and did have concerns that I would be stranded whilst Phil went out and did his own thing.  So this was the perfect solution and very kindly, step dad and Marie have already sorted out the insurance and we are driving down to Suffolk next weekend to collect the Fiesta.  Sorted!

Whilst we were driving back from Cambridgeshire I took a call on Phil’s iPhone4 from Louise the diabetes nurse to say that she had Phil’s prostrate results.  On the advice from my sister Lou I had made him go for a prostrate test and the results had come back and were not good.   Men of a certain age do suffer with prostrate problems and Phil has to go back to the surgery to discuss the results after Louise has conferred with the doctor.   Yes, I am little concerned but no point in worrying at this stage until we know, just what we are dealing with.

On Thursday Phil picked up G from Roade and drove to Melton Mowbray to visit his mum and dad for the day.  He took Mr Tom Tom and G drove all the way cross country so that was really good practice for her before she takes her test on the 22^nd of November.   They all went to lunch at The Flying Childers but by Phil’s account it was wasn’t too wonderful.  Phil was able to fit his mum and dads bathroom heater whilst he was back at home so at the least he made himself useful.

My gym visits this week have been regular but not very strenuous.   I did, however manage a 5k run today but my hamstring afterwards was pretty sore.  I can’t wait until I’m back to full fitness, I’m frustrated that I can’t do what I want to do.  It’s pretty much my own fault because it’s all down to over exercise.  God wish that Phil suffered from the same problem, although saying that, he did spot a fitness bike on sale in the DW shop that he pointed out to me.  I may buy it as a surprise; it won’t fit in the lounge but would easily fit into the conservatory and well, maybe 2 hours biking whilst watching the plasma may just aid his weight loss, which I might add is not going great. Since being diagnosed with DB2 Phil has lost only one pound! 

On Friday Phil had to go to the travel clinic for his Typhoid injection but when he was there the consultant managed to persuade him to have Tetanus top up along with a flu jab.  I personally don’t believe in the flu jab and Phil himself said that the only one time he had it about 20 years ago, he suffered with the worst flu that he’d ever had!  When he told me that, I resolved to myself that from now on in, I will go along with him to every doctor-cum-nurse appointment that he has.  He needs someone to question the results and decide on the best way forward and that person is me!

We’ve been pretty healthy in lunches this week and Friday and Saturday I’ve done chicken noodles.  I’ve pretty much got this down to a 45 minute process and the results are fairly good even if I do say so myself.  The bedroom project is pretty much almost finished.   When Phil returned from his injections I forced him to put the feed on my new Dwell high gloss unit in the bedroom.  It wasn’t difficult and it looks fabulous and even Phil agreed that it looked better when raised off the floor.  All I need to do is get new bedding, which is already on order, and it will be project complete.  Phil couldn’t go to the gym on Friday morning because of his jabs but I did make him walk to the city centre on Friday afternoon to watch a movie.  We saw ‘Paranormal Activity’ not our first choice but it fitted the time slot.  It was okay but VERY SCARY and I totally embarrassed myself by screaming very loud and hard.  The people along the same row as were laughing their socks off at me and I had to make sure we left the cinema just as the credits rolled.  I scare so easily and it reminded me of why I don’t watch scary films in public.  At one point I totally freaked out and accidentally scratched Phil’s jabbed arm in terror, he wasn’t very impressed and neither was I frankly when I saw the red blood stained indentation afterwards.

This morning Phil did come with me to the gym and afterwards we went upstairs to the DW shop because they had a sale and we had a £5 voucher off.   Phil got 3 t-shirts, 2 shorts and 4 pairs of socks for the bargain price of 30 quid.  Lunch was teriyaki noodles with chicken and afterwards I went to the city centre to do some Christmas shopping.   I don’t know if anyone of you ventured up there but boy was it packed.  My main mission was to go to Superdrug to get my eyebrows and upper lip threaded.  The girl there was good and it wasn’t too painful although I had to walk round with a red face for the next couple of hours.   I am in dire need of a leg, bikini and underarm waxing but I’m trying to hang on until next week.  It’s so bad, I resemble a monkey and I’m not sure how long I can last; soooo embarrassing, I think I need to make an appointment ASAP. 

It’s seems strange posting on a Saturday night and I didn’t think I had so much to say, certainly not 2 A4 pages in Word and 1,345 on word count, but hey, that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.  Need to sign off very soon though as we have been invited to Sandy’s Halloween party across the cul-de-sac and I need to get ready.   I’ve already brought my Halloween sweets for trick or treating tomorrow night and stupidly put them out ready in a dish.  I say stupidly because I had quite forgotten that I had a naughty little sugar rush school boy living in the same house that simply can’t resist.  I need to take them away and put them out of sight because come tomorrow evening all the little children will have nothing to put in their sacks.  Happy Halloween everyone and don’t forget to put your clocks back tonight!

Mission accomplished

Although I made a late start to the day on Monday, I had a very productive day.  When I first stated painting over the red in our bedroom I thought to myself “oh my god, why did I ever start this” but 4 coats and 8 hours later, the room was finished.   The last job of the day was to put everything back in its place and re hang the mirrors and pictures.  I do like to use colour and I’m not afraid to use it but the white walls make a vast difference to the room and makes it looks much bigger.  Phil came with me to Dwell and we picked up my high gloss white bedroom unit which looks just great.  Even Phil agreed that it was a good buy.   Whilst we were in Dwell we spotted some arm chair units for the lounge which will be just perfect for either side of our reclining sofa.  They are not cheap so we didn’t purchase, but I will be keeping my eye on these just in case they appear in the bargain bucket corner.  If not, it will be my Christmas present to myself. 

I was knackered after my decorating, I didn’t get time to go the gym so I climbed in the shower at teatime and put on my pyjamas.  When I awoke on Tuesday I was aching from head to foot. I was a little worried that I may have made my back worse by shifting the bed and the units but it wasn’t any worse, certainly not any better but definitely not any worse.  It wasn’t easy getting the white gloss unit up the stairs but we managed it with no major traumas.  Phil came with me to the gym yesterday but we only had time for a quick session because I wanted to get to IKEA to search for some white bedside units.  We scoured the showroom and eventually found 2 units that would fit snugly by the side of our bed.  Actually, they’re computer printer units but they will do the job just as well. 

No trip to IKEA is complete without a coffee and a hot dog.  There was a load of old rubbish in bargain bucket corner but you always have to check, just in case.  Along with the printer units, we managed to find silver feet for the Dwell white gloss unit.  We also bought a kitchen trolley stand which matches perfectly with our Varde kitchen units, only £29.99, and a real find.  I waxed it all over and it now looks as if it’s been part of our kitchen forever. Unfortunately I had to relocate the wine rack and it doesn’t look good in its new spot so this needs rethinking.  I was a very happy girlie as we loaded our boxes into the car but Phil wasn’t as happy as he had the job of building the units up as soon as he got home.  John Lewis delivered the new Christmas tree on Monday but I haven’t opened the box yet because I know if I do I won’t be able to resist putting it up as this would be make me a very sad person especially as we are still only in October.

Sue emailed me on Monday to update me on Alan’s progress which I am relieved to say was positive.  They have the district nurses visiting them twice a day to administer the Sutent and the doctors have managed to control Alan’s pain with synthetic morphine together with anti sickness drugs which is great news.  Alan is well into his first week of having the kidney drug without any major side effects, well none that Sue reported anyway and at least they are at home and come have some normal life.   Unfortunately Alan is still attached to the catheter but fingers crossed he can get this taken out this week.  Hopefully then we can link up with the pair of them.  Until such time, we send love ‘n’ hugs.

Our passports were delivered yesterday complete with Indian visas which don’t expire until the 21 April 2011.  They only took a week which is great and I’m glad now we didn’t pay the extra for the fast trek option.  At long last, the Indian Embassy has finally got their act together. After lunch, which was baked spuds and left over chilli from Sunday, we drove to Old Wolverton to take in the KA for a winter service with a specific request to fix the slow puncture in the rear passenger side.  Unfortunately when we went to go to the garage, the tyre was almost completely flat so poor Phil had to take it to the Shell garage to put pump it up in the pouring rain.   The rain was relentless all day and I had a nervous moment when I skidded on the roundabout; I thought the tyre had gone down on the drive to the service centre so I drove at 20 mph probably frustrating all the cars behind me.  I’m probably a bit of a woss I know but one can’t be too careful.

It was a thoroughly miserable day yesterday and our holiday to Goa can’t come any sooner.  Phil has been checking the weather every day and although the temperature is high, there’s still a lot of rain around which suggests that the monsoon season isn’t quite finished.   It should be gone by the time by the time we fly out, but either way, it’s still going to be a lot warmer than it is here at home.  I can’t wait………….

Monday Morning Moans

Last week was a very expensive week for us.  On Monday afternoon Shaun from Red Hot Heating popped round with the bill for the new boiler for our one bed flat down the road.  We expected a big bill but £1,600 was little higher than we were expecting.   On Tuesday we went into Curry’s to order a new fridge freezer because the one in the TMA flat had stopped working.  Phil brought this second hand from the market a few months ago, I told him it was a bad idea at the time, but would he listen?? No.  We ordered the cheapest fridge freezer we could find but even that came out at 280 quid.   Phil took the Freelander into Stratstones on Friday for a winter service.  We had a flyer through the door to say that they were offering £199 for service, MOT, valet and lots of other free things.   Phil hasn’t found the service at Stratstones very good in the past and they are incredibly expensive but this deal was good so we thought we’d go for it.   Anyway, Phil went to pick up the Land Rover and the bill came to 500 quid!  Phil queried this and it turns out they had charged him for a puncture repair which should have been done for free.  He got home and re-examined the bill only to find that they’d also charged him for the MOT.  I also discovered on Saturday morning that they hadn’t cleaned the car either.  What a shower of sh*t!  Phil has to go and sort the bill out today and I’ve told him to sit and wait whilst they clean the Freelander.   We won’t be returning to Stratstones any time in a hurry.    All in all, it was a very expensive week.

Our weekend was fairly peaceful and relaxed.  I managed a couple of brief gym visits but Phil opted out using his cold (which has gone) as an excuse.   My hamstring is much better but my back pain is still niggling and is refusing to go away. I have made the decision this week to lay off all weight and core training and just stick to cardio with some Pilates stretches at the end.  I’m also going to make an appointment for the sports therapist because I know from the past if I don’t sort it, it will only get worse.

I was in the middle of ironing late on Saturday afternoon and stopped to answer a knock on the door; it was Kevin from across the road, who once again, had forgotten his key.  He settled himself on the sofa and waited for his mum to come home.   I think there was some kind of football match on the telly, don’t ask me who was playing, but there was no chance as Phil wanted to watch ‘Homes under the Hammer’.  Kevin, bless him, was polite and didn’t make any complaint.   A few hours later I spotted Sandy’s car in the drive and informed Kevin that his mum was home but he didn’t move, he wanted to watch the end of Homes Under the Hammer programme.  The rest of Saturday night was X-factor and a reasonably early night.

Phil was up at around 4am on Sunday morning.  Harriet woke me an hour earlier when she returned home from nightclubbing.  I did manage to go back to sleep but when I got up around 8am I felt knackered.   Phil had got up to watch the Korean Grand Prix, although I don’t know quite why, because Jim was coming round with Shirley specifically to watch it.  I went for a quick gym session leaving Phil to prepare chilli, rice and nibbles.  Shirley & Jimmy arrived around 2pm and the boys settled in front of the plasma with their bottles of beer while Shirley and me chatted in the kitchen.   I was surprised that Phil gave Jimmy the prime seat on the sofa; he never does this for anybody!  Seeing the pair of them reclined out, well they are two peas in a pod.  Harriet chatted to Shirley and we waited until the agent and the people who were viewing the house at 3.30pm before we ate a late lunch.   They arrived on time and there were about 10 of them.  They didn’t stay long so I don’t expect any positive feedback today.  Phil did cheesy nachos for nibbles and we had chilli and rice, baked spuds, salad and a pasta dish that Shirley had made. It was very nice and for once the chilli was at a temperature that you could eat without it setting your mouth on fire.  A nice afternoon, so thanks guys for coming round.

I have been up for ages but am slightly out of routine this morning.  Harriet has gone to work, Phil is still in bed and I can’t go to the gym because I am waiting for John Lewis to deliver my Christmas tree.  Yes I know this is way premature, but when I spotted this tree on Emma’s Facebook page, I just had to order it.  It’s not a traditional Christmas tree, more of a contemporary array of twigs with integrated lights.   It sounds naff, Phil says it sounds naff, but believe me when it goes up in the lounge in 6 weeks time, it will look fabulous!

If I get all my jobs done this morning, this afternoon I’m going to start on the redecoration of our bedroom.  I went to B&Q to pick up wall paper samples on Saturday but none of these are right and instead, I’ve decided to get rid of the magnolia and red feature wall and repaint it all white.  The feature wall is currently deep red (my favourite colour) so it’s going to take many coats to cover it.   My decision to go white is based on a wonderful white high gloss unit that I spotted in Dwell also on Saturday afternoon.  It was in the clearance bargain bucket corner and had been reduced from £399 to £100.  I just had to have it and I am going to collect it this afternoon.  It needs a little modification and I need to visit Ikea to get some feet for it because I don’t want it to be flush to the floor.   And then all I need to do is to find some new cheap, white gloss bedside cabinets and it will be job done!   Much to do, so times to sign off this short and sweet posting and get going!

A mixed bag

It’s been a funny old week for lots of different reasons.  So much for blogging about plans and routines on Tuesday, all this went out the window when Phil came out with a cold on Wednesday.  Of course, out in the cold with friends and a tank load of beer didn’t help but at least on Thursday, we managed to sleep in until 8am which was wonderful.  The week gone by has been splattered with appointments.  Phil had to go and see the doctor first thing on Tuesday morning to ask for some blood tests, prostrate and liver tests at my insistence.  On Wednesday morning I had to be at Superdrug for my appointment with Julie the mole nurse.  She re-examined a dubious mole on my right shoulder to see if it had changed in appearance.  Julie took photos and showed me on her screen and we both agreed that there had been no change.   The report came back later that afternoon from the doctor in Sweden who confirmed that the mole didn’t look cancerous but the advice was to keep an eye on it.  A bit difficult really when it’s on my back but I’m definitely going to be more diligent with my sun screen from now on.

Phil was feeling rough so on Wednesday afternoon he settled himself on the sofa and covered himself with blankets which has pretty much what he has done every afternoon this week.  He seems to be okay in the day time but by the afternoon his nose starts streaming. I’ve been feeding him Lemsips and they seem to helping a bit.   With Phil snuggled on the sofa, I took myself off to Carmelo’s in Stony for a cut and finish.   This really will be the last time I go to Carmelo; his prices are exuberant even on discount days.  Harriet said my hair looked nice but Phil said he couldn’t see any difference.   A typical man! 

We both failed to make it to the gym on Thursday; Phil certainly wasn’t well enough and I got stuck into the housework and by the time I got around to thinking about going to workout, it was lunchtime.   In the afternoon we had an appointment at the travel clinic to get our injections topped up.  We both needed a top of Typhoid, the nurse did me first but Phil couldn’t have his injections because of his cold.  He has to go back next week.   We talked about malaria tablets.  I’d done a bit of research on the web before our appointment and I discovered that there is a new malaria drug on the market called Malarone.  We could buy these at the travel clinic but 21 one days worth of pills came to £245!!  From my research I knew that I could buy it much cheaper over the internet but the trouble is, you need a prescription.  I asked the nurse if she would write me a prescription and she said she would but would charge me 20 quid. I said “thanks but no thanks”.   We talked about it when we got home and have decided we aint going to bother with taking malaria tablets.  I think we should be okay as long as we slap on the mosquito spray and turn the air con up high.  The mossies don’t seem to like me much, I guess too much wine in the system that sends them crazy but, boy do they love Phil.

On Friday Phil once again settled himself in front of the telly and opted out of the gym; I didn’t blame him because he obviously was still suffering with his cold so it was best he stayed at home.  In spite of my hamstring and hip pain I still went to the gym, no pain, no gain, I didn’t overdue it but it still hurt a little.  I’ve decided to go to the MK Dons therapist for a sports injury massage to help me.  I’ve been before and it’s around 30 quid and, well, if it cures me and enables me to do a ‘proper’ workout then it’s well worth the money.

Phil is really suffering from a wardrobe defect.  I know he doesn’t give a toss what he looks like or indeed what he wears, but today, he took it to another limit.  We went to buy fish and chips from the shop in New Bradwell (best chip shop in town if you ask me).  Anyway, I diverse, and it was whilst I was queuing in the shop I noticed that Phil was wearing his pyjama top underneath his shirt.  Nothing wrong with that you might ask but in fact everything was wrong with it.  A horizontal PJ top doesn’t miz well with a vertical striped shirt!  I need to sort him out; truefully he doesn’t have a fully stocked wardrobe but even so………….

Alan was finally discharged from Oxford last yesterday afternoon and both Sue & Alan got home last night. Thank god for that; I want to write that they will be back to normality sometime soon but in reality their normal lives changed way back in Rome with the CT scan when Alan was first diagnosed and now they are well down into that medical tunnel.  Sue says they will have    nurses in to visit Alan each day but at least now they have home comforts and privacy.  Hopefully we can link up with them before we fly away.

We took fish and chips and mushy peas x 4 back to Chris’s house in Walton Park to coincide with Harriet’s OU lunch hour from 1 till 2pm.  Considering Chris has had his second replacement hip operation nearly 2 weeks ago, he is doing well.  We were a little early and had to put Harriet’s fish/chip supper in the oven but still, she enjoyed it, as did we all.   Phil helped Chris with his scanner and it was nearly 3pm when we left. 

After we left Chris, we went to Tesco to get some stuff for lunch for Sunday as we have Shirley & Jim round for what I call a ‘paupers’ lazy lunch.   Phil will do his best and be assured everything will be cooked from scratch.   I shall look forward to seeing Jim & Shirley, we can catch up over the Grand Prix with a few jars and, well, as long as they don’t have any high expectations in the catering department, all shall be fine. Back in after the weekend folks….have a good one!

Embarrassing or what?

Since finishing work Claire has made me take exercise each day and so far we have only missed one day, Tuesday when we were supposed to be walking to the cinema and back. As we left it got very dark and it seemed rain was a certainty so we turned back. Before we had even got home it started so it’s a good job we turned around when we did. We took the car instead and spent the extra time looking for exotic snacks in Waitrose; far more civilised than the expensive rubbish they dish out at the cinema. The film we watched this time was called “The Town” about a bank manager lady that was kidnapped by one of the bank robbers and let go minus her drivers licence. The robbers threatened that if she said anything they knew where she lived. One of the robbers follows her and arranges to bump into her to start a relationship so he could find out whet she had told the police but ends up falling in love with her. Another good film but not as good as the excellent film about Facebook where Jesse Eisenberg plays an excellent Mark Zuckerberg who wrote the Facebook program. It is played out as court case where he is being sued and is played back in flashback. He plays an incredibly intelligent role even set against his Harvard colleges and the lawyers. Both these films are worth watching.

Although Claire and I have always been early risers, since we got back from our Australian adventure we haven’t been waking up until around 8am. However, I have been getting up at 5.45am for the last 3 months and can’t seem to get out of the habit since I have finished; in fact I seem to be waking up earlier since I have finished. Tuesday night I wake up at 12.30am before most people had even gone to bed and couldn’t seem to get back to sleep again. By 1.30am I went to the toilet and by 2.30am I had woken Claire so I got up at 3.30am to allow her back to sleep. I took my current book with me that I am really enjoying; more about that when I have finished it. Claire must have gone back to sleep as I didn’t hear her until about 7am when she went to the toilet so I snuck back to bed in the warm again just as the heating was coming back on. Having had hardly any sleep and being cold all night probably didn’t help me avoiding the “man flu” that I now have. Anyway, this hasn’t stopped my continuing with out exercise routine and we were at the health club by about 9am. Upon arrival, I was greeted by, what sounded like some Bletchley yobs, F’ing and Blinding loudly enough to be heard by all in the changing rooms. There seemed quite a lot of people in the club changing rooms so I had to share a changing bench with others; I set my bag down and took out all the items that I would be needing for our session in the gym. My gym shoes, my water bottle, my small sweaty towel, my T shirt, my shorts that seem to have something attached to them. Oh my God, it’s a pair of lacy knickers. They have attached themselves to the Velcro on my back pocket; they are either Claire’s or Harriet’s but everyone thinks they are mine! It’s enough to make one start F’ing and Blinding. Sorry, but I had to reconstruct them for the photo; what would it have looked like if I had taken a picture of them at the time?

At the end of last Wednesday’s boy’s night out, I suggested that Chris brought along Vanessa so we could talk to her about her adventure up Kilimanjaro and we ended up with a ladies night out. We had a great night, which always seems to go quicker when there are more there but you never get chance to talk to everyone. I didn’t even get chance to talk to Vanessa which is why the night was conceived, but not because I didn’t get around to it, but because she was poorly and didn’t come down. Get well soon Vanessa! You would think that with the amount of time that we have been blogging that I would be taking photos at every opportunity, but you would be wrong. I never took a single picture the whole evening, I didn’t even think about it until this morning.

Talking of photos, I finally got around to sorting out our photographs from our Australian tour and made a folder with all the best ones in it. Now I have my new iphone you can access “Dropbox” from it just like you can from any computer in the world. Whatever you upload there you can access on the internet so its ideal for travelling or showing photo’s on your phone. All I need to do now is all our other holidays, then get the 2 boxes down from the attic with all the real pictures in and sort those out, digitising all the best ones. This is a job that I have had in mind for several years. Anyway, once I had made a best folder I made another subfolder of all the best ones of Claire and printed some off to mount in the picture frames that I bought from Ikea. I’m really pleased with them and would like to get some more of these frames so as to make different themes.

Unfortunately I had to abandon my last OU course about Combinatorics because of the new contract and associated travel. However, I intend to take the last two books with me on holiday so as to at least finish the course off. I won’t get anything for it as I failed to hand in half the work or take the exam but at least I can learn all that there was to offer. If I had my wits about me I could have deferred the course until next year and save the expense of paying again but I was too slow. The reason I do these courses, are for self enlightenment and the qualifications are secondary so I have decided to do a different course this year. The one that I chose is SM358 “The Quantum World”, a course that I have wanted to do for many years and now I feel ready. My interest was rekindled by Alan and Sue who we have recently become friends with. Well, Alan really as he is fascinated by it and talking to him has reminded me just how interesting and weird a subject it is. I read a couple of books that I already had and started looking for others in the library and bookshops but there is no better way of learning about something than an OU course. The only trouble is that you can’t brush over the bits that are not interesting or are too hard and you are forced to learn the whole course. There is quite a bit of maths in this course but reading through the previous requirements I should be ok if I can remember anything. Anyway I’m looking forward to it and hope that the units come in time for the Christmas break so I can start early and get ahead in case I find another job next year.

Plans & Projects

Words cannot describe just how much Phil was looking forward to finishing his contract in Abingdon but when he came through the door on Thursday evening and threw down the Ford KA keys for one last time, rather than relief, what he actually felt was a real anti climax.  I’m not sure just what he expected to feel like but already after a long weekend and a lie in on Monday morning he’s a much happier bunny.  Thank Christ for that, I’m not sure how much longer I could have put up listening to his moans and groans and looking at miserable boat face.

Where as Phil, is ecstatic to have his newfound freedom back, I, on the other hand, even after only a few days, am missing mine.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not missing the early mornings or the tedious task of sandwich making for one moment, but well, having Phil around 24/7 is a bit like having a naughty school boy back for the long summer holidays, he is very demanding!  I am sure I will adjust and well, it’s only 3 weeks before we jet off to Goa.   As you may be able to tell from the last posting, Phil is very excited, I was a little apprehensive at first, worrying about a million things, but now, I too, have caught the travel bug and at the end of the day, it was too good a bargain to miss out on.  We have agreed that we will be in the UK for Christmas and have already made plans which is very unusual for us; normally we make no commitments (NONE WHAT SO EVER) before December and then we usually book a cheap flight, let everyone down and piss off somewhere.  This year we are going to Phil’s mum and dads on Christmas Eve so that we can help with the preparations and then we will drive back to MK after lunch on Christmas Day to make dinner for Harriet.   Sorted!!!

Now that Phil has finished work, my goal is to really force him is to step up the exercise and concentrate on his diet.  He chickened out of the gym on Friday morning using paperwork as an excuse.   I let him off, after all it was his first day of freedom but I still went for a quick run.   We had leftovers for lunch and then walked to the city centre to watch a movie.  Thankfully we both agreed on the same film, ‘The Social Network’.  What a truly brilliant movie and better still, it was based on a true story.  It was amazing and I, no we, can both highly recommend that you go and see it, and really, the sooner, the better.   It’s fast paced and you need to keep all your wits about you, just in case you miss something, but you won’t be disappointed, I promise!!  It didn’t matter that Phil missed the gym, a 2 hour walk there and back made up for it.

I mentioned earlier that I don't miss the early morning alarm calls but in reality Phil has been awake at 5.30am every morning since he finished work. It’s been excuse after excuse, peeing, number twos, general insomnia, complaining of me sleep talking or wriggling and pinching the duvet, anyway, whatever, the spare sofa bed is rucksack laden so he has nowhere else to go, bar the sofa.   On Saturday morning we were awake so early, I think around 4.30am that we were in plenty of time to get to the market for fruit and veggies. After that we queued up at the Post Office to sort out our Indian Visas.  Even though this process is slightly easier since the Indian Embassy outsourced the visa applications, it was still a nightmare.  We were the first in the queue for the travel desk and still, it took us half an hour.  Afterwards we went to the gym for a fairly respectable session.  Unfortunately, I had to cut Phil short, my right hip pain and my hamstring problems meant I could only do an hour; my boy wasn’t impressed. And, to be honest, neither was I, but if I am going workout to my full potential in the future, I need to be kind to my muscles and not overdue it.  I don’t remember what we did for lunch on Saturday but I suggested a walk around the block in the afternoon (in our case a round trip round the canal via the shops and back) but SOMEHOW we ended up the pub.  How did that happen??? Don’t blame me, it was Phil’s suggestion because he wanted to test out the free Wi-Fi on his new iPhone4, and well, I am never a girlie to turn down a glass of white!  A few pints later, and a bottle of white wine and we toppled back home along the canal, which was a little soggy underfoot.  The rest of Saturday was movies and X-Factor and then bed. 

On Sunday we were awake with the lark and caught up with papers in bed.  We didn’t make it to the gym; I’m not sure what Phil did with his morning but I did a lovely roast lamb chop dinner foregoing roasties for mash and I even did a meat pie ‘meals on wheels’ dinner for Chris.  We didn’t get to the gym but I forced Phil out on a walk to Willen via the Peace Pagoda.  We’d only been going 40 minutes when Phil needed the toilet so we had to turn back which was a shame because it was really lovely day.   His toilet need became urgent so we had to stop off at the Ship Ashore and of course we had to stay for a drink, only the one though.  I am afraid to say that Sunday afternoon was films, recordings and chocolate.   We were getting ready for pyjamas and an early night when Kevin from across the road, knocked on the door because, once again, he’d lost his key.  I fed him a can of full fat coke, a mince pie and a packet of quavers.  Of course, I phoned Sandy, his mum, and luckily she was already on her way home.  I popped over to make sure all was okay and I was dismayed to hear that Sandy’s central heating has conked out again.   I lent her our gas radiator and feel a bit guilty that the plumber that I’d recommended (Shaun), who installed a new timer costing £199 had failed after only a few months.   In return for the loan of our gas radiator Sandy gave me 6 newly laid eggs from her chickens. I shall look forward to eating these.

I’ve phoned Sue a few times during the last week to see how Alan was doing and I’m afraid to say that it hasn’t all been positive.  Alan & Sue went to Oxford for a hospital appointment last Wednesday where upon he was admitted, and to my knowledge, he still hasn’t been discharged.  He’s had a few set backs, he can’t have the operation to remove the tumour because he’s too unwell, he’s suffered a series of allergic reactions to the opiates (which I’m guessing is Morphine) and the reactions have been rashes and sickness. Just picked up a text from Sue sent last night to say that Alan had a biopsy yesterday and hopefully (fingers crossed) they will be home later this week. 

We have lots of projects to work on before we fly away.  Phil has said that he wants to sell some stuff on eBay and I want to redecorate our bedroom, big time.  I want new furniture, I want to do a feature wall and generally make it brighter and sexier.  My sister Lou sent me some photos of her newly decorated bedroom, her focus is orange with a painting which she commissioned from one of her ‘artist’ friends.  I think I’m fairly good with a paint brush, but believe me, my sister is really talented. Her style is minimalist, modern but with a slight 70’s feel and maybe slightly masculine: I am nowhere near as creative; my style is clean but maybe flowerier and pretty rather than functional.  I guess we are all different and it would be a boring world if we all liked the same.  Phil & I went to IKEA yesterday because I wanted to look for some funky bedroom units; alas, we couldn’t agree on anything, actually I didn’t really see anything that would suit so we came away empty handed.  I think I will have to go and have a look in Habitat without Phil because the prices compared to IKEA are bound to make him have a heart attack.

Phil cooked a spinach chana dal and rice for lunch yesterday.  This basically is an Indian veggie dal curry which is very healthy.  It’s not my favourite dish and I have to force it down but I’m conscious that we eat an awful lot of meat especially red meat so I think we need to try and cut down and eat more vegetarian meals.  Having Phil home once again has upset the day-to-day happy routine that I had established for myself.  Its early days I know, but even Phil agrees that we need to figure out a daily routine to maximise our time more fully.  Here here, I say, I have been trying to enforce this into him for years but anyway, we’ve have agreed that he will be in charge of shopping and cooking and that ideally he needs to have our main meal prepared or at least half prepared the day before.  We are going to aim to be at the gym by half eight latest which gives us time to have a really good workout and swim and then home for lunch leaving the afternoons free to work on ‘projects’.   That is the plan anyway, whether it pans out remains to be seen.  Phil can be unpredictable at the best of times but living with him is certainly never boring!

Holiday Fever

Most people seem to get holiday fever when the sun starts to come out but with me it’s just the opposite. Ever since I booked the holiday to Goa on Wednesday I have had holiday fever and I can’t stop thinking about them, looking for them, downloading APP’s for them, which is my current favourite pastime, even dreaming about them. It might also be because the weather has definitely turned and my shorts have already been packed by Claire who also has holiday fever; I think she was packing the rucksacks while I was on the phone arranging the holiday. It’s getting so cold that I have just bought a new pair of tracksuit bottoms in favour of my normal house shorts. I have even taken to leaving several sheets of toilet paper hanging over the radiator in preparation for my next visit which isn’t very long with my new cocktail of drugs and Claire’s weight loss tea. Even when the Sunday papers arrive, the first one that I look for is the Travel supplement. I can’t get over how cheap some of the flights are, especially for long haul. We had a magazine arrive through the post called “Footprints” sent to us from Travel Mood who arranged our Australian and world tour. Incidentally, Derek who we are currently buying a house from has just booked his world tour including New Zealand, Australia Hong Kong and Fiji has used them on my recommendation and he was very impressed by them as they are so helpful and also very cheap. Anyway the magazine also includes a £100 voucher for the next time we book a holiday through them. I was reading through it and they had a special feature on Malaysia which has really got me going. I hadn’t realised that Borneo, Penang and Singapore were all part of it; well I guess that Singapore isn’t technically but its there abouts. When we toured Thailand we went quite a long way down towards the Malaysian border but we have never been there. There are some lovely islands all along both of the Thai coasts so I suspect they will continue into Malaysia. This contract didn’t finish a moment too soon.

I have been to Singapore for 24 hours but never got out of the airport so it wasn’t my favourite holiday memory, rather the journey from hell. I set off to stay with my good friend Steve who was working in Korea for a week and arrived at Heathrow airport at 5am on Friday morning. I didn’t arrive at my destination in Soul with Steve until Sunday afternoon and had neither washed or slept or barely eaten. I never received any compensation for this nightmare journey but did manage to get upgraded into first class on the way home. I visited every terminal at Heathrow, Singapore and Korea several times and even visited the swimming pool at Singapore airport on the roof; trouble was it was around midnight so I didn’t see the sun but it didn’t stop me feeling the heat that it had left from its previous appearance. Anyway, Jimmy has been to Singapore several times and he really likes it so it’s definitely on my bucket list. As is Borneo which is the last place on Earth that Orangeman’s can be found in the wild. I would love to have a trek through the jungle there. Anyway I found some return flights to Kuala Lumpur for around £350 and considering it’s not far from the other side of the world I find that very cheap. Also Jim’s youngest son Tom is living and working there at the moment with his girlfriend so I guess that he would help getting us going. He would probably also know cheap and good restaurants to try out. In fact he sent us some CAD software over from there for which he wouldn’t let us pay so we still owe him for that.

What I thought was that if we just booked return flight with around 6 weeks in between that might leave enough time to explore the whole area including some of the islands and Borneo. Looking on my new google APP Bali doesn’t look very far from Borneo either and we loved it there. But I remember from our last trip there some Australians said that Bali was only around 2.5 hours flight from Perth and we haven’t visited Western Australia at all. However, I think I am getting a little ambitious for a 5 or 6 week trip, better to leave those for another time and concentrate on doing a smaller area better. When is the best time to go? Well I was looking at one of my Malaysia APP’s and they have a monsoon that lasts up until February so we don’t want to go there when that’s on but its better for us to go during our winter so as to muss the worst of the weather. I’m not sure if the monsoon finishes at the beginning or the end of February but February is probably our best time to go anyway. We have booked one of Claire’s holidays that she won in January to Tenerife, it’s only for a week but it does seem to be getting in the way of more serious holidays. With us going to Goa for 3 weeks in about 3 weeks we wont be back until early December and then its my Mum’s 80th Birthday and my Dad’s 85th both in December, then Christmas and New Year and then this silly free holiday before I can even start looking for another contract. So I’m already half way through January anyway, so why not wait until the weather starts to improve. We want to be around for the second or third week in March as the new apartment that we are buying becomes vacant when Derek’s current Tenants will be leaving and we want to do our usual renovation makeover before we re-let it again anyway. It’s an ideal apartment for old people as it’s on the ground floor and very close to shops a pub and Central MK. We were thinking of putting one of those showers for old people in rather than a bath which allows you to have a sit down whilst getting clean; I might even try that myself first. Anyway we were thinking that my Mum and Dad might like to live there as they are both really struggling with the stairs at their home; or even my Auntie Daphne who is still recovering from her fall and broken leg whilst we were in Australia. It has the added advantage that we also own the only other attached apartment on the 2 floors above so we could live there so as to be available to help them and shop for them but still giving them their independence. We are also in the process of trying to buy the land between the properties and the pub car park from the Council which could give more space for parking or gardens at the very least.

I have been keeping my eye on the Goa holiday that we booked and although we saved nearly £200 between us by waiting they are down even further now by another £40 each but for the week after we have booked to go so we would have missed my Mum’s birthday anyway. It surprises me that they are getting cheaper and we are getting closer to Christmas; usually the closer towards Christmas the higher the price. And of course the hotels charge around 3 times their normal rate over the actual Christmas period as well.

Anyway it seems to me that we may be able to shoehorn another holiday in before all this starts and if we go to Malaysia we wouldn’t take our computer with us, we would buy one there as they are cheaper than here; we could also load it with lots of cheap software and then use that for our blogging and Claire would get a new one in the bargain as hers has almost stopped. Here I go again, I’m almost trying to talk myself into it by suggesting that we would actually be saving money by going on holiday; what do you think Claire?

They have built some more concrete cows and placed them near the old Oak tree in the city centre. The new part of the city centre was actually built around this tree because they were not allowed to chop it down. It must have cost a fortune to design and build around it in the first place and then even more to rescue the tree when it started to die almost immediately afterwards. Here is one of Claire near it when we visited the Apple store to take the docking station back because it didn’t work. Apparently, most of the hardware for the iphone still isn’t compatible with the iphone 4. I also include a couple of Georgina in the style of a pencil drawing when she last drove to Melton to visit her Grandparents. Another of one of our many walks by the canal, usually to see a film now that Claire has her free pass and I have my new student card. There is a nice one of Harriet after she got changed into her new clothes that she bought in preparation of her London trip. Fourteen girls got together and ordered a limousine to London and back so they could all get pissed and have a night around town. She didn’t get back until 6.15 am on Sunday morning but seemed to have a great time. The last one is of Claire and Harriet; not sure if Harriet has grown or Claire has shrunk and goodness knows what we were watching on the tv.

Go to work on a noisy crumpet

When I say work, turning up would be closer to the mark as I have absolutely nothing to do now, nor the prospect of anything. I find myself looking for cheap holidays on the internet and working things out; anything to drive away the boredom. I even worked out how much they were paying me to make a cup of tea last week – about £2.50. As a consequence I’m drinking far more tea than I should, I’m also going to the toilet more than I need, partly because it’s almost overtime; “time and a turd”. Anyway, I would like to thank Claire for looking after me so well while I have been in this contract, she’s been brilliant. She hasn’t missed one morning where she has got up to make my sandwiches and breakfast every day. As I’m getting in the shower she asks me what I want for breakfast, to which I always ask for my favourite, crumpets. Claire doesn’t like making crumpets because they wake Harriet up. Each day she tries to talk me into having fruit or cereal because that’s better for me, especially being diabetic now. Sometimes she goes back to bed but she has always got up with me to wave me off; thank you darling!

We have both mentioned before that we made an offer on Dan’s flat, who used to work with Claire at the Open University which is the largest university in the world. Well, I had a feeling that the estate agents were trying to pull a fast one so I asked Steve to ask Jan his wife to ask Dan if he had been made aware that Claire had made an offer for it. Jan is doing Claire’s old job at the OU and so works with Dan now. Anyway Dan was off work Thursday and Friday so she couldn’t ask him. Steve has started to come out with us on a Wednesday night and also has an iphone so it gives us all a chance to compare our latest App’s. Anyway, Dan’s house was advertised at one price but the details had a sticker over the original price which says to me that it had recently changed and rather than printing more copies out they stuck this over the only bit that had changed. We offered the full asking price but the agent told us that it wasn’t enough and that Dan needed 20% more than the asking price. In fact he said that this wasn’t the full asking price as it said OIEO after the price. Apparently this stands for “Offers In Excess Off”. Anyway Dan has sold this flat twice in the past and it has fallen through both times and he is now getting a little concerned that the property he wants to buy will slip away from him. I said that we were cash buyers and that we could complete in 3 weeks but the agent didn’t seem interested. I know that by law they have to inform the seller of all offers regardless of the size of it but my instinct told me that he hadn’t. I have the feeling that someone at this agency wants to buy the flat on the cheap. It’s even the same price on Rightmove which would only take minutes to change.

Having had nothing to do last week I have been doing extensive searches for holidays, my favourite pastime. I love looking for holidays so the old saying that arranging a holiday is half the fun seems good to me. When times are hard all you have to do is look for and arrange two holidays without taking them. In this way you have just as much fun without the expense. Anyway, the best value 3 week holiday was in Goa which is strange as the flight alone is 10 hours where even Tenerife is only 4 hours flight away. Also when you get there, its much cheaper as well so you save twice and you also have guaranteed good weather. Once the monsoon season is over is clear blue skies all the way until next April. The official start of the Indian summer was 7th October so its time to go already. The cheapest one I could find was leaving on 11th November for 3 weeks with B+B accommodation in North Goa all for £478 each. Claire and I prefer South Goa where most of our time has been spent; in fact we have only spent 2 nights in North Goa. Last time we were there we couldn’t find anywhere to go on our weekly big bike ride day; we had got to the point where we had been everywhere. Well the north we have yet to explore properly, we have had a drive day in a taxi and stopped off all along the coast line to take some photos but its not the same as staying there and exploring yourself on a bike. The chances are that the hotel with the cheap deal will be rubbish but we could stick it for a couple of days before going our own way. If we hired a bike in the North for a week we could explore it properly and have a base to do it from, we should be able to drive to most places and back in a day from there. Once the weeks up we could go down to the South and stay here and there like we normally do anyway. I can’t find a flight only, as cheap as this deal which includes the hotel so even if we never stop there its better than getting a flight only.

Talking of holidays, have you seen the exchange rate of the Australian dollar lately? It’s down to $1.6 to the pound so it’s almost equal to the American dollar now. We thought that it was low when we went there at $1.8 because it had only recently dropped from $2 to the £. Mind you, all currencies have a bad exchange rate to us at the moment, even the Indian Rupee is down to 70Rs to the pound. Last time we were there it was about 85Rs to the pound. If you go to Europe the Euro is about the same as the pound these days and I can’t see it ever getting much better. When I was a kid you used to get $4US to the pound; in fact we used to call half-a-crown (2 shillings and sixpence or about 12.5 pence), “half a dollar”. Yes, I grew up with old money and it wasn’t until I started work that we changed over. You used to get Victorian coins in the change in your pocket which seems bizarre now I can hardly believe that it’s a real memory. I used to save coins in those days as all you had to do was collect them from your change. I still have most of them now; for example I have all the brass-nickel three-penny bits ever made. Well not all of them but every variation in style and year. I have all halfpennies from 1900 to when they stopped making them and hundreds of Victorian coins. Maybe I have kept them long enough now and should start to investigate their worth. I even have crowns, sovereigns and solid gold coins of various denominations. I have one solid gold set that was worth thousands when I got it so hopefully that should pay for another property by now; or at least a holiday for Claire and myself. I also used to collect stamps which most kids did in those days and I still have all of those. They must be worth a fortune by now its just not knowing how to get them valued or marketed. I guess by following ebay I would get an idea of their value. I was so sad I even belonged to the local “Coin Club” in Melton Mowbray. I think I was called a “Kleptomaniac” or at least something like that.

We finally watched the last ever episode of “The Sopranos” on Friday and it as taken us over a year. With 6 series and over 24 hours to each series it’s hardly surprising but the last series we have only been able to watch one episode a week. It’s basically about a modern day mafia family living in New Jersey which doesn’t sound great but it is. The first series where all the introductions were made has been described by people in the know as at least the equal to anything written by William Shakespeare. Although I am not in the know, I would have to agree with them it’s by far the best drama series to ever appear on the TV in my opinion, it’s so cleverly written whilst being gripping the whole way through. If you get the chance to watch that first series take it – you will be hooked! Trouble is it makes everything else seem limp in comparison. I must say that I was a little disappointed with the end but I guess they had to be different. I can now understand why so many people were expecting another series to follow and couldn’t accept that it was over for good.

Claire went for an interview last Wednesday and she got on really well with the lady that interviewed her so I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets it. She wouldn’t find out until Monday or Tuesday so I couldn’t book our holiday until then. Trouble is we need a visa to go to India and through the post it takes 2 weeks to get. If she does get the job then we need to dash off on Friday 15th for 2 weeks before she starts but that will leave us even less time to get our visas. We seem to be doing the holiday equivalent of painting ourselves into a corner. Tenerife is looking better all the time. I hope that Claire doesn’t get this job secretly because it will screw up our holiday to start with and I might end up with all the washing and ironing in the process. Don’t tell Claire though because I think she would really like it as she hasn’t worked for about 4 years now so her confidence could do with a boost work wise.

Finally finished work now and Claire didn’t get her job and neither did I. I had agreed to be put foreword for one as I expected Claire to get hers anyway. Neither of us heard anything back from the agents. This allowed me to book our holiday to Goa and we will be off on 11th November for 3 weeks. Even better news, while I was waiting to hear if we had got the jobs, the holiday had gone down by about £100 each and ended up costing £399 each. Of coarse we had to pay extra for baggage but that was all. I think we got it at about the optimal time because they have already stated to go up again for the same date and hotel. Can’t wait now, especially having my iphone to take on holiday to help with the blog!

There is a great little app where you talk into your phone and it converts your voice into text and it’s very accurate. This should take the sting out of typing onto a little phone one letter at a time, especially when you have “fingers like a pound of sausages” like me. I have already bought a cheap travel keyboard that uses Bluetooth to communicate with the phone. It also folds in two to make it even easier to travel with. I’ve tried it out and it works great so that’s another reason I can’t wait to go away to try it all out. Claire bought another add-on as a surprise for me finishing this contract; it’s a iphone docking station. You just plug in your iphone and it charges it up, sets the clock on the docking station and allows you to play music through the circular speakers. You can even charge a second iphone if you have two. This is quite a small solution to taking music with you on holiday. Of course, when we do go on holiday you guys get the added benefit of having me blog more often. Why has it all gone so quiet?

Oops, the smoke alarm has just gone off, got to go now my crumpets are ready!