Mum's gone to Iceland....

I think I need to inject some excitement in to my dreary life.  Last night I popped to our local shops for some milk.  I was greeted with a large sign on the shop front saying - Store closing Saturday until Thursday for a re-fit....and I actually got quite excited about it.  No, I got very excited.  This is not good.  Especially as it's an  Iceland store.  Iceland I tell you. 

44 years old and I get all excited with the prospect of an Iceland store re-fit!

This week has been a real heavy week at work, not helped by the fact that we've had a sickness bug going through the school.  The kids have been a pain but nowhere near as much as their parents have been.  Our parents are very needy, and so we bend over backwards to accommodate them, we go out of our way to help them and one in particular who is a real pain in the arse very needy even has the cheek to criticise us.  Makes you wonder why we bother to go that extra mile for them.  Thankfully these parents are in the few and on the whole we are appreciated.

It's half term next week and we are off to the van.  Originally we were going to go from Sunday to Saturday but I have managed to negotiate Monday to Friday with hubby...and if it gets any colder the visit will be a lot shorter.

Speak to you after the holidays.

Sue x x x

Ahhhh, those were the days.....

I am feeling in an 80's kind of mood this week!



Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels

I can remember listening to this on my walkman - the cassette type - as I travelled to work each day on the 8.30am train from Paddington to Reading back in the mid 80's.

What to do .......

This half term is flying by isn't it.  One more week to go then we have a week of school.  We plan to pop to the van for a few days and will shut it up for the season.

We'd been giving it a lot of thought and had just about decided to throw the towel in on the van.  We've had it 5 years now.  This year it seems to have lost it's shine a tad.  We have been lucky enough to have really good neighbours and everyone got on like a house on fire.  But this year the dynamics changed.  Lots of bad feelings amongst some of them, lots of bitching behind peoples back and we were getting drawn in to conversations that we really didn't feel comfortable with.  The problem is some people get to far into each others pockets.  Not us, we are floaters - mix with everyone, never make plans to meet up or go out but if we happen to bump into them them we will join in.  We don't like to feel tied down.  So we asked the site what they would offer us for our van.  Now bearing in mind we paid £26,000 and then added decking at a further £3,500...they said we'd be lucky to get £7,000 for it!!!

Our main problem is the financial upkeep of it.  Ground rent, gas, electrics, rates and insurance set us back about £5,500 a year.  We own it jointly with my in laws - who are both now retired.  So we need to find 50% of this just before Christmas.  And to be honest we struggle.  As well as our spending money and petrol each time we visit which averages out at £500 a week.  In this current climate it really has been a bit of a ball and chain.

Because we spend most school holidays there - and as I work in a school I don't have any other time off throughout the year, nothing is getting down around the home.  The whole house needs some tlc - inside and out.

But £7,000, that's just taking the pee.  We'd be a fool to hand it back for such little money.  So we've had a family meeting and have decided to borrow the next 3 years ground rent (which is nearly £3,000 a year) against my in laws mortgage - that way we can all enjoy the van with out the financial worries.  They plan to sell up and move away in 3 years and are happy for this to come out of the equity on their property.  The sad thing is they will still offer us around £7,000 in 3 years!

I think that was probably another reason why it seemed to loose it's shine this year.  It's no fun going on holiday and watching the pennies is it.

I was quite happy to give it up as I really got fed up with all the bitching and back stabbing. Sometimes adults can be worse then kids.  At least kids say what they have to say and then make up afterwards.

Hubby has got a bad dose of man flu, it's just a cold but he's knocking on deaths door!

The weather is really turning now isn't it. 

Keep warm and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Sue x x x

Ring, ring...it's for you!

Many, many moons ago in my past life I worked in a sales office.  Each day switchboard would get an obscene phone call from a local chap.  Carol, on switchboard, would take it in turns to put him through to one of the girls in the office for him to ask us 'rude' questions - like 'What colour knickers are you wearing today' or 'How big are your boobs'.  Now, we are guessing from all the commotion that you could hear going on in the background that he was masturbating.  So, we answered his questions - mostly making up outrageous answers - and when he was 'done' he would hang up.  This went on for about 10 years.  It stopped about the same time that BT introduced the 1471 call back option.  If you dialled 1471 you could hear the telephone number of the last person to call you and you could then call them back.  Well, one day we did this. Boy did we give him a run for his money and then threatened to report him to the police.  Funny enough, we never heard a dickie bird from him again after that!

Sorry, I have not be posting much recently but I went down with yet another virus and sickness bug that I picked up from work and to be honest it has really knocked the stuffing out of me.

Also, we have had lots going on with my son and school.  After over 4 years of trying we have just managed to get my son a statement for his special needs.  We have had to appeal for more hours as initially we have been offered 17 hours support a week but the school feel he needs 27 hours.  My son is severally dyslexic and has specific learning difficulties too.  He struggles with reading and writing and can not retain information in his brain.  He will be 10 at Christmas but has a reading age of a 4 and a half year old.

To say it has been an emotional roller coaster is an understatement. 
Enjoy your week.

Sue x x x