The sun has got his hat on..................

I'm getting sick and tired of this weather now, I really am.  My office at work is like a sauna, we've got one fan that coughs and splutters and doesn't seem to make the office any cooler.  The staffroom has air-con but that makes it all the worse for when you come out of it - it's like hitting  a wall of heat as you open the door.

I'm irritable as I'm not sleeping too well and seem to be living in the shower.  Hubby is all better now, has that sparkle back in his eyes and is keen to make up on lost time ...but I keep telling him it's way too hot for any hanky panky!

We got the kids a new paddling pool as they kept on and on about getting one as I accidentally cut our old one with the flymo last year, it took ages to blow up, fill with water and get to a comfortable temperature for them to dip their lickle toes in.  They were in it for all of 20 mins in which time their float, ball and lilo all ended up in next doors garden and they declared they had had enough and stood in the kitchen demanding towels making puddles on the floor, followed by wet patches on the sofas!

The poor cat doesn't know what to do with himself - imagine wearing a full length black fur coat in this weather - poor little love.

To top it all, I get a letter from Sunlife Direct saying I've been accepted for an 'Over 50's' insurance policy......FFS I'm only 44....give a girl a break, I have enough issues with my age as it is, talk about kicking someone when they are down!

Last Friday I ordered a large delivery from Mr T, including all the heavy stuff for the coming month like - cat food, bottled water (large and small), laundry stuff, tinned stuff, bottled beer, juices, bathroom stuff and so on.  I always say deliver with bags as it's easier to unload and take the kitchen plus I live on a busy one way street and you can't always park outside my house.  The driver turns up with about 20 creates of shopping and only a quarter of it was in bags.  The picker obviously felt guilty for not bagging the items as he/she left a wadge of bags on top of one of the creates. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  The Polish driver spoke very little English (Although he now knows a few English swear words!)  It took bloody ages to unload as it had to be deposited in the hall and all over the lounge floor and then transferred to the kitchen.  The only bonus was I seemed to get 2 bags of shopping that belonged to another customer - it was a bit of a lucky dip but it was all food that we eat...so result.

Still feeling miffed for it not being bagged, I sent an email off to Mt T's HQ's on  Friday eve and got call on Saturday with an apology and my delivery charge being credited back to me.

Our Internet decided to die yesterday, we tried the AOL helpline but it was constantly engaged..probably due to the heat too!

Darling daughter is being very testing at the moment.  Bloody hormones.  I wish it was like it used to be in the good old days at M&S.  As long as you kept the receipt, no matter how long you had the item you could return it for an exchange or refund.  I'd be straight back to the hospital for a refund I tell you. Then, I'd be down the pet shop for a goldfish.  At least they don't whinge and moan constantly about everything and anything and would be grateful for a pinch of food each day.

So, all in all I think I'm coping quite well with this heatwave!.....how about you guys?

Sue x

Shoot me if it ever happens to me........

Well, I hope you  all had a lovely weekend and looked after the 'Daddies' in your life on Sunday!

On Saturday, hubby was working and as my MIL was away for the weekend I was asked to pop in and see his Nan who lives in a local care home.  She is a lovely lady but sadly due to dementia is loosing her marbles very quickly.  She has the odd good day and mostly very bad weeks.

Becky had arranged to go out with her friend to the cinema, so it was just me and the boy.  So after we had had our fill at good old Maccy D's - we made our way to see Nan....or Crazy Nanny as she's recently been re-named.

We get to the home and find her in one of the other ladies bedrooms looking very concerned.  Apparently, one of the old dears has gone AWOL.  Can't see how as it's like Fort Knox to get in the place.  So, I reassure her that she 'll not have gone far and will soon return to her room.

So, we shuffle down the corridor to her room to have a chat.  I open the door and it's like a sauna.  She says she's been feeling cold, even though it's 22 degs outside and she's got a jumper and a cardigan on - bless her.

She tells me that she is not allowed to open the window in her bedroom more then about 3cm's anymore.  I look outside and I can see lots of white tissue paper scattered on the green, and it's contained to a semi-circle around her window.  I ask her why.  She explains, that someone, has been putting soiled toilet paper out of their bedroom window and making a mess on the communal gardens.  I look at her bedroom floor, I can see a stash of it behind her chair.  She explains that the wind has been blowing it in.  Yes, I say.  Wind tends to do that.  She's upset that she can no longer feed the birds on the bird table that sits outside her window.  I can see remnants of toilet tissue on it, I'd say they are relieved.

She desperately wants to give my son something, anything. And is looking through her wardrobe in desperation to find something.  She comes across a knotted blue long sock hidden in coat pocket.  She undoes the knot and empties a load of jewellery on to her bed, mostly costume but there is one piece that is very ornate and I swear looks like it's made out of Indian Gold.  I ask her where she got it from, she replies 'I found it here, it belongs to no one, so I'm keeping it'.  With that she knots it back up and returns it to her coat pocket.

Next she goes over to her knicker and sock draw, still looking for something for my son.  She trys to give him a pack of 5 white ladies M&S socks - 5 sizes too big for him,  I reassure her that he's fine for socks but thanks anyway.  Hidden in this draw are her new shoes.  She tells me she has to keep them there as they are a thieving bunch of so and so's and you have to lock everything away.  I admire the 2 newly acquired soft toys she has on her dresser - not new but new to her.  She says she found them also.  We leave her an hour later, happy in her own little world.

It's so sad to see her this way, she's 87 and a shadow of the woman she was just 18 months ago.  If she'd have stayed in her home she would not be here now as she was forever falling over and very, very lonely.

Yesterday we went up to to London for the afternoon, it takes us just 15 mins or so to get to Euston by train.  Hubby and the kids went on the London Eye but again I chickened out.  I don't do height's and I'm afraid that I would panic being in the capsule and not be able to get out.  Apparently, the views are amazing.

Afterwards we popped into the London Film Museum currently at County Hall and enjoyed a leisurely walk along the Thames.  After a bite to eat we made our way  home.  We got back home just after 7pm and we were all knackered.

None of us wanted to get up this morning!  Alex has a school trip to London Zoo tomorrow, and is very excited, even though he's been there more times then I can count!

Have a good week.

Sue x x

Energy, I wish you could buy it by the bottle...

Maybe it's the weather but everything this week has been a real chore.  I feel totally zapped of all my energy.  Yes, my rush last weekend soon burnt out.  I've even been doing a bit of self diagnosis on the web - as you do, after convincing myself I've got ME...but thankfully I don't think I have!  I've even been having a little nap early eve, some nights for 2 hours and still managing to have a full nights sleep too......I feel 70 but I'm only (only, joke!) 44.

Unfortunately, I have an under-active thyroid which does not help at all.  Although I take tablets to control it and have done for 9 years, I struggle as it causes a slowing down of your body's functions...i.e everything is an effort! 

Your thyroid gland makes two hormones: thyroxine (also called T4) and triiodothyronine (also called T3). Together, these hormones regulate your body's growth and metabolism. Your metabolism is how quickly your body burns energy and how quickly reactions in your body happen. It affects lots of things, including how much you weigh and how much you sleep.  As mine is under active I'm not making enough hormones so I have to take it in an artificial form by tablets each day.


I'm OK at work as I'm busy all the time but by the time we've eaten dinner, that's it, I'm done for!  The best thing is not to sit down for too long! lol
 
I'm due to have my yearly blood test soon, and I wouldn't be surprised if I have to up my daily dosage, perhaps this is why I'm feeling like I do.
 
Not an awful lot happening at my end.  Work is really busy at the moment, and will only get busier as we come up to the end of the school year.  We hold an 'Oscars Night' at my school at the end of the school year.  We all have to dress up - the men in black tie! - parents and children too.  Every child receives an award/trophy for one thing or another and they have to come up on the stage to collect it - gold envelopes an all!  It's a great night but very tiring.  The parents have finger food and wine and this year we are going to have a raffle for a flat screen TV and other goodies.  The children all look very sweet in their party outfits and it finishes the year on a real high.
 
Nothing planned for the weekend but I do need to tidy up the garden again as with all this good weather my grape vine looks like something out of the 'Day of the Triffids'!  My neighbours decided to attack their garden last weekend, the first time in 18 months.  Boy was it over grown.  The chap worked all weekend and even layed down some new turf. The daft apeth watered the new grass on Sunday but has not been near it since with the hose and it's already started to die off - what a waste of time and money.
 

 ******UPDATE******

Chap next door must be a secret reader of this blog, as he's just back from Homebase with a new hose and sprinkler and is attempting to resuscitate his lawn!

Sue x x

Well, I'm all Tombola'd out.........

The weather didn't let us down at all and we had a fantastic School Fete yesterday!  We got there an hour before the start, which was a bit slow but it picked up and we had a steady crowd for the 3 hours.  As always, everyone worked really hard and made it a success for the school.  Silly me for thinking that it would save me money by working on the Tombola stall though, if fact it cost me £38 pounds....as he kids were relentless but I have to say they were also very lucky too and the car boot was full with their winnings when we left for home - tins of food, toiletries, games and most importantly a bottle of wine won by my darling Son (I knew he'd have his uses!) By the time we'd cleared up we got back home about 4.45pm. 

We did a quick tally up and we reckon we managed to make around £1900, which although doesn't sound a lot for 3 hours work, it is a small fortune for the school -  especially considering it's is recognised as being in a town of high deprivation.

I must have had an energy rush this weekend, as I've managed to tidy up and clean our bedroom, my daughters room and I even managed to catch up on all my ironing too!

We've been into town this morning for a latte and a mooch around the shops and have just had a barbecue for our dinner.  So, I think I will be off to have a well earned soak in the bath and read the newspapers.

Sue x x x x

Roll up, roll up......

Another week over with.  Why is it when it's a short week it always seems longer some how.....maybe it's because you have to fit 5 days work into 4! lol.

Well, this week I made another purchase to go towards all the other keep fit paraphernalia I own and never very rarely use.  Yes, this week I have been mostly doing 'Pilate's for Idiots'...and it's not bad either!  It was a snip at £3.97 from Amazon and if I can follow it, then any idiot can!  The woman that demonstrates looks very butch and has muscles any man would kill for, so I reckon give it 2 years and that will be me.

Tomorrow is my works School Fete.  They forecast sun, sun, sun.  I'm running the Tombola.  I'm thinking that it will save me a fortune as this is the stall that I usually spend the most money on.  Last year I was in charge of Tattoos,  my fingers looked like prunes by the time we shut up shop!

At long last, it looks as if hubby is finally healing, THANK GOD!  
Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Sue x x

Good enough to eat....

Well I must be as I was very kindly attacked by the mozzies whilst we were away last week....and boy do they itch, they are driving me mad!

The week started off a bit overcast but redeemed its self as the week went on.  We even managed to have a day on the beach at Frinton on Sea on Thursday.

Hubby was still concerned about his wound, basically it still hasn't healed and the whole is bigger then the width of a pencil.  So, last Wednesday we travelled nearly 80 miles to the other side of Essex to visit another branch of the clinic he had the procedure done at for a doctor to have a look.  He assured hubby that everything is fine but he explained that because they had to cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding it will take a lot longer to heal then if it had just been a puncture wound.  I just wish the doctor at the time had told him this so we would not have had all the worry. 

We got back home yesterday afternoon and the garden seems to have gone made with the good weather last week.  In between washing I started cutting back the plants and had hoped that Hubby would cut the grass but he had other ideas......yes, he was outside polishing his new car!

I look forward to catching up on all your blogs later today.  I'm not back to work till tomorrow but the kids are at school so before I start the ironing I am going to have a cuppa in peace!


Sue x x

It's all a load of rubbish....

Before wheelie bins, we all had just one small dustbin.  It was collected once a week.  Was rarely full.  A cheery binman would greet you with a 'good morning' as he came round the side of your house to collect the dustbin.  If you had extra bags he would take them without asking.  He knew your name and would always put the dustbin back to where he'd collected it and the front gate was always shut behind him.

My how things have changed.

We now have half of our front garden taken up with 3 humongous wheelie bins. 

Green for household waste
Blue for recycling
Brown for garden waste and food scraps

Blue and green get collected on alternate weeks, brown is collected every week.

If you don't put your bins outside on the street they will not come into your front garden to collect.  If you put them out too early you could get fined!

If the lid doesn't close properly then they will not collect at all, nor will they collect if you put the wrong type of waste in the wrong bin.  I had a fall out with one of our refuse collectors a few years back as an empty pringle tube ended up in the wrong bin and he wouldn't empty it.  I even made hubby chase after them with the bin to get them to empty it but no joy.  But they still have the cheek to knock for a bonus at Christmas.

Today as I was dragging the brown bin back to our house after finding it discarded in the street, it felt rather heavy.  I look inside to see why and I am greeted with about 6 inches deep of old food scraps....even the de-frosted peas have come back to haunt me! 

So I get a spade from the garden and carefully remove the contents (which I have to say was also full of hundreds of wriggling maggots).  Armed with a bottle of domestos and hot water I squirt in the bleach and pour in the hot water.  I don't know how I managed to do it but I must have had the bin a bit tilted as as soon as the water hit the base of the bin it shot back up the other side and smacked me in the face.

I was not a happy chappie I can tell you.  How I didn't vomit I do not know.

We have a man that will clean them for £3.50 each but up till now I've been too cheap to sign up for it.  After today, I might just give him a call.

Sue x