Trials of My Life

Ch ch changes

2011-04-06T21:11:00.002Z

I've decided to leave Blogger and create my own blog in Drupal, well I say I've decided, I looked at my husbands blog and decided that I liked it better than mine. So I got him to create me a website where I can post my blog. So from now on my blog is going to be http://www.sarahbriggs.co.uk

I can't guarantee that I will update it regularly but you never know.

Bye Blogger, it's been nice having you for the past 7 years.

Cars and Cakes

2011-02-22T12:56:00.004Z

Since my birthday the rest of 2010 has been a little uneventful, Christmas came and Christmas went. I received lovely presents including: Toy Story 1 2 & 3 on Blu-Ray, cake decorating ideas book, Outnumbered series 3, cake tins, star cupcake molds, 3 tier cooling racks, Radley Umbrella, Money, winter coat, chocolates, pasta set, Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows for xbox360, Stephen Fry’s autobiography and lots more. I spent Christmas morning opening pressies from my hubby and mine to him, which included a special surprise of a Magic Wand (the one that featured on Dragon’s Den) which he loved. We then went to my In-Laws to open more pressies and spend the day with family having a nice xmas dinner. Boxing day was spent visiting my parents and having another xmas dinner and opening more presents. The rest of the holiday was spent relaxing at home and new years was spent at home playing games and getting drunk with K’s friend Andy.

We are now into February and to be honest the last month or so has gone by in a blur. We got our new car at the end of January, again sticking with a Ford Focus (different colour) and it is very lush, even the radio speaks to you, which is very cool especially for hands free. I can now see out of the back window which is amazing, our last car had privacy windows and I hated them. It is very nice to drive and has parking sensors so no more accidentally crashing into walls, plus I’ve got better at parking.

I have decided that I need to brush up on my design skills so I’ve been following some photoshop tutorials in Photoshop Creative magazine, I’ve done 3 tutorials now and I think my first one is the best so far. I have also been baking, I’m getting rather good a cupcakes and I’m making my Nephews 7^th Birthday cake, which is going to be a Red Square Lego Brick. I’ve not worked with Fondant for a long time but I’m quite good with rolling out pastry so I don’t think it should cause too much of a problem.

Celebration

2011-01-17T20:35:00.001Z

I wasn't expecting my next entry to be in 2011 but as you all know I'm rubbish at updating my blog. So I left off with telling you all about my birthday celebrations. After my trip to London my actual birthday was spent with my husband and family, we went to a local restaurant called Taybarns where you can eat whatever you want and however much you want. The choice is varied with something for everyone, which is why I like it there. Whether you want Fish, Pizza, Full roast, Chinese or BBQ they have everything not to mention a really nice salad bar and desserts, especially the profiteroles. Which is always a must have for the husband, my choice of dessert is usually hot with custard.

On the Friday night I went out in town with friends and a few work colleagues, cocktails in Olive to start then more cocktails in Vodka Revolution, a few drinks in Varsity then more drinks and dancing in Reflex (80's bar) a good night was had by all and no hangover the next morning. But I must confess that I don't get hangovers, ok I tell I lie I did have one once but that was after drinks lots of bottles of wine at a Christmas party and I was very very drunk.

To spin out my birthday a bit more on the Saturday night my husband and I went out for a meal to Frankie and Bennys with hubby's side of the family (my now in laws) this was also very nice and enjoyable. I really like F&B's especially their hawaiian pizza (ham and pineapple to normal people) and probably 9 times out of 10 that's what I usually choose, I have been known to have Lasagne, which is also very yummy but usually it's the Pizza.

In October for an extra birthday treat my work mate Karen and I went to Birmingham to Cadbury world, this was amazing. It was like we were in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the chocolate smelt and tasted fantastic. Even though we went the week before half term it was still relatively busy and it was a good job we had booked our tickets in advanced. There were a few school outings but they were all well behaved. When you first go in you get a free Curly Whirly and a packet of Cadbury Buttons, you then start the tour going through how the cocoa beans are produced and how Mr Cadbury started his own business and how it evolved. He initially went into the tea business before discovering that he could make more money from Chocolate, and I'm so glad he did, I'm not really a tea fan, more a coffee person and chocolate, see it's all in the bean.

You then get the opportunity to tour a little section of the factory where you get your next freebie, a bar of Dairy Milk. Now this bit of the factory tour is nicely sectioned off, you get the feel of what goes on in the mixing and the making of the chocolate but you only get to see a tiny little bit, this bit is when the dairy milk bar has been made and is going along one of about 15 conveyer belts to be wrapped and packed. But it is very interesting all the same and the smell of chocolate is sooooooo good. I think if I moved to Birmingham I would have to get a job there, I know what you are thinking, surely you would in time hate the taste and smell. Well you'd be wrong I could eat chocolate everyday, granted I'd be the size of a blue whale but at least I'd be happy.

Anyway moving on after the factory bit you get to be herded in to a little ride, imagine in Disneyland the "it's a small world" ride but instead of nice looking flowers etc you are greeted with weird looking cocoa beans dressed up doing various fun activities. I know this is the fun bit for the under 10's but these things are very disturbing, at one point I was rather scared. They have strange little faces and look almost "Mr Potato Head" like. You get to have your picture taken at the end of the ride for prosperity, that's if you succumb to their devilish prices. The ride travels at snail pace so I'm not quite sure why they thought that you would want to have your picture took at the end of the ride for, it's not like Alton Towers. But I'm sure there are parents from all over that have caved to their children's request and have got these pictures. After the ride you then walked back through the factory taking in the lovely smells again to the next part of the tour which was a series of rooms that depicted how the packaging and advertising of Cadbury products have changed over the years. This was very interesting and they had little interactive screens with quizzes that you could test your knowledge of tv adverts and when Cadbury chocolates were released etc.

The next part of the tour was in another building marked "Essence" this is where you watched another short film about how Mr Cadbury discovered the "glass and a half of milk in every pound of chocolate" and how the slogan and image has been used in marketing and advertising. After the short film we went into another room where you received a warm shot of melted chocolate, with a choice of topping. I went for rice crispies and it was very delicious.

Opposite Essence is Bournville world where there is a mini version of the Bournville village which Mr Cadbury built around the factory for all his workers and their families. There is more detail of one particular family and how they started working at the factory and how their family has grown and how to this day still live and work in Bournville. Also in this part of the factory it gives you an incite into how the hundreds are chocolate bars get packages and shipped out on large pallets. On the way back to the car we had to stop off at the Cadbury shop which was massive to buy more chocolate for ourselves plus friends and family. On the way home we stopped off at Nottingham retail park for dinner at F&B's. Yes you guessed it I had Pizza.

This was then the end of my 30th Birthday celebrations.

Brought to you by the Letter B and the numbers 3 & 0

2010-11-29T20:27:00.001Z

I have now been in my 30's for over 2 months now (and its taken me that long to comprise this blog entry as well) I have to say it hasn't been all that bad, it was a little stressful on the day but I managed to cope. I also managed to spread my birthday celebrations over 3 weeks. First I had 3 days in the Isle of Wight, which was very nice but emotional as the main reason we were there was to scatter Nan's ashes, it was a really nice evening but very sad, to celebrate we spent the next day visiting all the places on the isle that she loved.

On the Sunday I got dropped off at heathrow and got my tube to Covent Garden where I was meeting my husband for 3 days in London. It is here where the real birthday celebrations were to begin, starting off with my first present, a visit to the Radley store for my bag, then to Russell and Bromley for the protector spray for the bag. Spraying a bag in the confines of your hotel room, where the window only opens a tiny bit isn't the best plan, having nearly gassed hubby with the spray we went out for tea to Garfunkles where I had a yummy pizza. We like Garfunkles very much their burgers and pizzas are very nice, it's a bit like Frankie and Bennys but down south.

The next day we did a lot of walking, which helped to burn the calories of the previous nights pizza, we started off at Covent Garden the walked the entire length of Oxford St to Marble Arch stopping in shops along the way especially Selfridges to have lunch in the Square Pie Co stand, their mash is amazing and the pies are better than Pukka. Our next journey was going down park lane where all the really nice car dealerships are, unfortunately they are mega expensive but nice to look at. Hubby enjoyed the car window shopping but decided that if we ever won the lottery then he would enjoy taking a trip to the Austin Martin dealership.

We followed the road then along Piccadilly to Waterstones where we stopped for a drink in the swanky lounge area on the top floor, the conversations at this bar are usually quite interesting. Not that I condone listening to other people's conversations, but it does make wonderful entertainment and you can gain a little insight as to what their lives are like. We decided that a Subway was on the cards for tea, but not before stumbling across Foyles book store. I had forgot there were one of these in London, we are Borders fans but since they went into administration we haven't found a good enough book shop for hubby to get really obscure computing books from. That is until now omg Foyles is massive the whole computing section is about as big as Waterstones in m'hall, hubby was in heaven and the staff were really nice too, a bit eccentric but friendly.

The next day we spent on another walking trip, again starting off in Covent Garden but calling in on the new addition to the shops, yes I'm talking about the new Apple store that has opened there. I sort of like it, but prefer the one on Regent St as they have a cinema like bit where you can listen and watch demonstrations on how to use stuff, and pinch their WiFi. After the Apple store we walked down to Jubilee bridge and crossed over the Thames. We walked along passed Blackfriars bridge to the Tate Modern. There wasn't much that took our eye their apart from an exhibition on Surveillance photography so we asked one of the information people where it was and she gave us free entry tickets (worth £10 each) I'm glad we got them free because it wasn't as good as I was expecting.

We then decided that we'd had enough culture and carried on walking back across over the Thames via Millennium bridge and headed towards St Pauls. We stopped for a cup of tea in Cafe Rouge then proceeded to walk along Fleet St and the Strand, back through Theatre Land to Leicester Sq where for tea I decided to treat my husband to an Häagen Dazs ice cream. Now this restaurant is amazing the flavours of ice cream are so nice, I had a Belgian Waffle Dream which comprises of a scoop of Pralines and Cream, a scoop of Dulce De Leche, a warm Belgian Waffle, Sweet Maple Syrup and freshly Whipped Cream. Hubby had his own creation. It was time to go back to the hotel after the ice cream. The next day was home time, but the celebrations didn't stop there. Tune in to my next entry to find out what I did in my actual birthday and my trip to Cadbury World.

Age is just a number

2010-08-16T12:14:00.000Z

Yes I know I have been the world worse blogger these past few months, and I'm always coming up with excuses but last month I had a bereavement in my family my Nannan Jean passed away so my mind has been elsewhere. She was a remarkable woman, a bit scatty at times but that's what made her the best, she never said a bad word about anyone and she devoted her life to her family. She took all her 3 grandchildren on holiday in the caravan just about every year as we were growing up and every Saturday we went over to visit and she'd play games and put on a buffet tea, never complaining just happy surrounded by all her family. She will be dearly missed by everyone who ever met her but she is looking down on us and making sure we keep out of mischief, she is now free of pain and will be having a good ol chin wag with my other Nan. Love ya Nan xx

In other news my title of my blog will soon be a lie as on the 30th September I will be 30. In a way I'm looking forward to it as I'm spending 3 days in London with my hubby and going out drinking and eating wonderful food, but in another way I'm not looking forward to it as it means I'm not in my twenties anymore, I'm in theory a third through my life (that's if I live to be 90). But I'm planning on having a nice week of work and just enjoying the moment, plus my husband is buying me a Radley bag which I'm very excited about.

A name is just a name

2010-05-25T17:52:00.004Z

How many places have details of your name? lots is the answer. You'd think of the obvious ones for example bank, passport, driving licence but I'd forgot about pension, national insurance, medical insurance. So changing your name takes forever. The list is endless and when you think that you have come to the end of the list you think of other things that are in your name and then you have to change them too, I'm sure there are loads that I have forgotten about and some that don't really matter.

Some places require your original marriage certificate, which fills me with dread, I don't trust the post service and I'm always scared that they will lose it, but so far so good, they are gaining back my confidence slowly.

I'm slowly starting to get used to being called a MRS and having a new surname, I'd got quite attached to my last one, well you do having been called one name for 29 years, so to suddenly have a new one it's gonna take time to get used to it. I saw it written down the other day by a work colleague and it took me about 5 minutes for it to register in my brain that it was me, and that it was me she was talking about. When I went to the bank to pay in a cheque she addressed me by my new name and asked me if there was anything else I needed, I just looked at her blank until I realised she was talking to me, then I just mumbled 'no thanks' and walked off.

I think every young girl has practised their signature when they fantasied about marrying a famous pop star or celebrity, me included I was convinced I was going to married Gary Barlow. But what I didn't practice was my new signature so when I had to sign it in the bank I was a little unprepared, thankfully it looked ok and I could remember how to do it for all the rest of my documents and cards.

It's Official Pt 2

2010-05-25T17:28:00.003Z

I'm sorry that this part of the wedding post has been so long in coming, I could say I was creating suspense but I'd be lying, I just forgot.

So where were we.... oh yes the sun had come out, which was really nice so we could have some photos taking in the Peace Gardens in Sheffield, for those of you who are unfamiliar with Sheffield near the town hall are some fountains in the floor and surrounding them is waterfalls and seating areas, if there happens to be a wedding at the town hall it is customary to have photos taken in the surrounding area which in this case is the Peace Gardens. A nice backdrop for photos were the fountains and also the blossom trees.

We then set off to Tankersley Manor for the Wedding Breakfast and Evening Reception. On arrival we had drinks in the Conservatory and more photos taken in the grounds. The only problem I had was on the grass my heals decided they were going to embed themselves, which in a way was good it meant that everyone had to come to me if they wanted to join in on the photos.

The meal was lovely and the tables set out really nice, I was a little nervous about the speeches and had written my fathers speech for him, I knew he would have done a good job by himself but my dad can go on a bit and thought it best to write it for him. The groom's and best mans speech was nice and really captured our lives.

It was then time for the staff to turn the room round ready for the evening reception, so we all went into the lounge area. I then go the opportunity to change into my flat shoes as the heals I was wearing were starting to hurt.

The evening reception went really well, the DJ played all the music I asked for and more and there were lots of comedy moves going on, on the dance floor. We decided that we weren't having a first dance but just having our music played whilst we were cutting the cake, it ended up with the music being played whilst we were cutting the cake then a mad flashing of everyones cameras it was like being a celebrity being attacked by the paparazzi and me finishing off our first dance with my cousin which was nice also.

The night whizzed by and the only one left dancing at the end of the night with all the balloons he had accumulated was our 6 yr old nephew, I don't know where he got the energy from. So it was time to leave and check out our junior bedroom suite. It was amazing almost as big as our apartment, I'll not go into detail about our first night as a married couple some things are better left alone.

We had a wonderful day and was glad that all our friends and family could spend it with us, It's a day that I will remember forever. I haven't even stopped looking at the photos yet even though it's been a month.

I'm at a bit of a loose end now but I'm sure work and other things will keep me occupied might have to start organising my 30th Birthday which is in September.

It's Official

2010-04-18T16:25:00.006Z

I'm Married OMG!!!!!

Well it has been on the cards for 5 years so I'm not really that surprised and I did organise it, but it is now real on Thursday 15th April 2010 I got married.

So let me tell you all about it... firstly on the Wednesday my cousin and I had 120 cupcakes to make which was a task, but turned out really well, I did all the measuring and she did all the mixing and we jointly spooned them into the cases, it was a well implemented operation, but don't fear we aren't going into business. I left her late afternoon to frost them as I needed to be at my mums for my nails and eyebrows doing by my chief bridesmaid. After inflicting pain my eyebrows were perfectly shaped and my nails were french manicured. Apart from having a little accident before two of the nails were dry everything was going to plan. I spent the night at my mums whilst Hubby to be was having a Poker and Games night with the lads.

After a restless night, I'm not used to sleeping in a single bed, it was Wedding Day. I had a small breakfast and only 2 cups of coffee, didn't want to drink too much as I wasn't sure how I was going to manage toilet breaks in my dress. My mum went off to the hairdressers and I had a relaxing morning watching Friends on TV. Kelly my Chief Bridesmaid came over to do my hair and makeup then helped me into my dress, flowers had arrived and everyone was ready, we had time to have a few photos taken, then the car arrived to take us into Sheffield.

We arrived outside the registry office in Sheffield with about 30 minutes to spare so we had quite a few photos done outside, including one of me with Spiderman and Batman who were collecting for charity. I had to make sure that I didn't have any photos taken with my hubby to be as it is bad luck.

So at 2pm we were ushered into the Town Hall and me and the hubby were called into see the Registrar were she told us what were going to happen. The ceremony was really nice as I was saying my vows I was trying not to look at K not because I was tearful but I knew if I looked at him too much we would both break into fits of giggles, so we only looked at each other for a little while.

After the ceremony we went out into the Peace Gardens to have more photos taken by the fountains and was blessed that the sun had appeared.

More to follow.......

Hen do

2010-04-05T22:59:00.004Z

It's been a few weeks now since my hen do, I've been really busy I've not had the time to update my blog. The night started off with getting ready then a tram journey to the local shopping centre where I was meeting family and friends in Frankie and Bennys for a meal. My chief bridesmaid had already been to the restaurant earlier that day to make sure they had all the stuff, there were goodie bags for my guests and I had an extra special bag complete with veil tiara, pink fluffy L plate, pink feather boa, shot glasses and a Disney princesses balloon, which by the way is still inflated now.

After the meal I said bye to some of my family whilst the rest of us went into Sheffield city centre to meet up with other friends to start the drinking. We went to lots of bars and pubs and ended up in the Ledmill. I had a great night out and my chief bridesmaid did me proud, and no sweaty stripper in sight thank god!!

So the wedding is only just over a week away, I can't believe it's come round so quick, but thankfully we are just about sorted. The table plan is done, favour boxes are made just have to put the chocolates in them and tie them up, we have been today to get K's nephew his suit, he looks so cute and a proper little bobby dazler. I went to pick up my dress from Trisha the alterations lady, she has done a brill job with my dress and it fits really well, it is now stored at my mums.

My cousin is making my cupcakes as marks and spencer don't make the vanilla and strawberry ones anymore, which I find odd as you would think that they would be one of the most popular flavours. I'm going to be helping her the day before making sure I've got time to have my nails and eyebrows done.

The flowers, balloons and car have been sorted, so everything is nearly ready, what am I going to organise once the day has been and gone??

I'll keep you posted over what happens in the next few days.

A post a month

2010-03-05T20:29:00.006Z

It's looking like a post a month on my blog lately, but again I have my excuses - it is only 6 weeks till the big wedding day. I am quite looking forward to it now and I'm not too stressed.

I got the call this week from the bridal shop that my dress has arrived, which is exciting so my mum and I went over for a fitting. It fits really nice apart from on the bust where it is too big so I will have to have alterations and my shoes that I bought the other week match really well, and I got my Tiara which is really pretty.

The woman in the shop asked me if I had booked in with "Tricia" I answered no, I don't even know anything about Tricia, the women looked shocked and said that someone should have explained to you that you would have to have alterations done and to book in with Tricia, oh and that there will be a charge. Well nobody told me this back in November. You would have thought that when you are paying a lot for a dress the alterations would be done in house and for no extra cost. Apparently most dress shops do this, it's all a money making affair, I think I'm in the wrong job!!!

Thankfully I gave Tricia a call the next day and I'm booked in on Monday. I had previously booked the day off work because it is the Oscars the night before and last year I forgot to book the day off and I was dead to the world. But having to get to Tricia's for 10 o'clock having already picked my dress up from my mums it is going to make me more tired, as I'm guessing I will only be having a few hours sleep, unless the Oscars gets boring.

I started making the favour boxes at the weekend which are coming along nicely, apart from it took me just over an hour just to make 20 and I've got a further 40 left to make, plus i need to get a few more boxes of chocolates and the ribbon. I'm going tomorrow to confirm the flowers and go to the party shop to see if they have the balloons I want and that they have helium. So everything is coming together.

I'm having my Hen night in Sheffield a week on Saturday and I'm totally at the mercy of my chief bridesmaid, it's a good job I trust her, but I hate not knowing anything. In our office I'm used to knowing everything that is going on, me being quite a nosey person, so when your chief bridesmaid is e-mailing all your friends, I get very paranoid and scared of what they have planned for me. We are going for a meal first at Frankie & Benny's then into town for cocktails and lots of drinking. I did the sensible thing and have my hen night the same weekend as K is having his stag do, but his is in Newcastle. At least when I come home very drunk I will be able to make as much noise as I want and have the double bed all to myself.

Nom Nom

2010-02-12T18:11:00.004Z

Last night K and I want to Tankersley Manor where we are holding our wedding for a tasting session. I assumed that we would get to taste small bits of our pre-selected menu; we could taste 3 starters, 3 mains and 3 desserts. We had made the decision to have the duo of Melon as starter already, but the wedding planner had said, "Well you might as well taste it". We were undecided on the main course so we chose to taste Chicken wrapped in bacon, Turkey and Lincolnshire Sausage and Mash. Then for dessert we chose Strawberry Cheesecake and Crème Brulee.

I was so sure we would only get small taster bites I keep on saying that I would have a Happy Meal from Maccy D's on the way home, how I was wrong.

Once announcing our arrival at the reception desk we were told to go through to the restaurant area, we were seated and offered drinks, water and a bread roll, which has just come out of the oven and was very yummy, I even had half of K's bread. I love hot bread with loads of butter.

The waiter then brought our choice of starter, the melon. First off it was a full potion, thankfully we were sharing, it was very nice, watermelon and honeydew melon with raspberry coulis and melon sorbet.

I said then to K, it's all right they won't be full potions of the main course, oh yes they were, and they were equally as nice, but after much deliberation, we made the decision to go with the Chicken in bacon with roast potatoes and seasonable veg. I had already made the decision that I wasn't having Sausage and Mash at my wedding but thought what the hell I’m going to taste it anyway, I was quite surprised on how nice the Sausages were, I’m not one for fancy food and sausages with bits in are not my preferred choice but I really enjoyed them. But mash shouldn't be served with cabbage in it unless it is in a fry up, left from Sunday dinner.

So I was pretty full by this point and I had to tell the waiter to give us a few extra minutes before he brought us our desserts. K and I had sort of pre selected our dessert, as for the evening buffet I wanted Chocolate Éclairs but he wanted Lemon Torte, and for the sit down meal I wanted Crème Brulee and he wanted Strawberry Cheesecake, so we came to an agreement that if I could have Chocolate Éclairs then he could have the Strawberry Cheesecake, but we would taste both the cheesecake and brulee.

They didn't have the Vanilla Crème Brulee as advertised on the menu but a Baileys Crème Brulee, well I wasn’t sure where the Baileys were in the dessert but it tasted lovely all the same, but the Strawberry Cheesecake blew it out of the water, put it this way I only had 2 small mouthfuls as K had claimed it.

So after coffee's we were pretty full, fit to burst and content, having both really enjoyed our free evening out. No need for a Happy Meal. I am now satisfied with our choices and I am looking forward to the food at our wedding. I will just have to have a bib so I don’t get gravy down my lovely dress.

January snow

2010-01-31T12:39:00.014Z

I know it's the last day of January and that I've not really stuck to my new year resolution of keeping my blog updated, but in my defence January has been a very busy month and it's flown by in a bit of a blur. It seems like Christmas was ages ago.

The whole of the UK was covered in the white stuff, yes SNOW!! and we had loads. I know the UK is notorious for lack of preparation and prediction, but the weathermen said snow is coming and it did, was we prepared? NO - there was a salt shortage and as a country we were running short on grit. But that's ok we can all get stuck or go sledging.

I quite like snow, but I only like it when it has been undisturbed and it makes the trees look like a fairy tale. What I don't like is when it is mucky and makes everything look dirty, that's not a nice fairy tale scene. On the day that the world stopped, (well it seemed like it at the time) I managed to get into work but as more and more snow fell the buses stopped running and people started to try and make it home, where was I? I was still at work. You see I work for a University and the only time they shut is never. I wouldn't mind but the students hadn't started back yet. I have to give them some credit they did say we could go home at 2:30pm which was nice of them. Thankfully the Supertram was still running (it runs in all weather, apart from flooding and even then it tries) so I could get home.

So wedding preparations are going well, I bought a 5 tier cupcake stand which is acrylic, and it turns out we don't have to make too many evening reception invites now, as I can put one up in the office and send out an e-mail and get them to reply on the website. It's amazing how many things we now can do with the capabilities of e-mail and the Internet, but it does take away a little of the traditionalism. Cupcakes need to be ordered in March and flowers are in hand, I'm having Cream/Ivory Gerberas and Roses with diamonties in the bouquet to match my dress. I had one florist quote but need another few in the town where my mum lives rather than where I live. I've still got to sort out my bridesmaids which hopefully I'll get chance to do soon. Well I'm going to have to make myself get it sorted as it's only about 11 weeks to the wedding and it's getting a bit scary now.

We are going for a tasting in a couple of weeks to decide on what we are having for the wedding breakfast, I think we have decided on the starter and main but the dessert is the hard part they have so many nice choices.

I'll let you know what we choose.

Oh Dear

2009-12-28T22:13:00.005Z

Like the title says Oh Dear! I've not done very well at keeping this blog updated, only 8 posts in 2009. Well again I will promise to update this more regularly and hope that 2010 will see more than 8 posts.

A lot has happened since my last post, we have just had Christmas and this year I've been a good girl so Santa brought me presents and some lovely ones too. I got a new Nikon Coolpix camera in Pink, Take That Circus tour live on BluRay, A cake piping set, Cupcake book, Clothes, PedEgg, smellies, DKNY Delicious perfume, Lets Dance for my Wii, Chocolates, Michael Buble Cd, True Blood books box set, Bag and lots of other nice goodies that I can't remember. We went to Mum-in Law's for Christmas dinner which was nice and got to watch our 5 yr old nephew open his presents, then boxing day went to my Mum's for another Christmas dinner and some more opening of presents.

*Wedding Update* I have picked and ordered my wedding dress back in Oct so hopefully I will be getting a phone call in the new year to say it's arrived, also quite recently we have bought our wedding rings which are really nice. So all the wedding stuff is coming together I'm currently in the middle of making the invites, we ordered all the card and paper from a company in Nottingham and so now all we have to do is print, cut and stick. The only problem is that we are going through UHU glue rollers like there is no tomorrow, but with half done it's not too bad.

Back in October I decided to have a break from my studies, with the wedding and work commitments it was hard to balance them all so I decided to temporary withdraw from my masters, and I'm glad I did there is no way I would have coped with it all. Hopefully I will pick it back up in September 2010.

I think I've brought you up to date. Happy New Year and my first New Years Resolution is to update my blog more regularly.

Blockbuster

2009-09-06T17:24:00.010Z

We have decided that we are having Marks and Spencer Strawberry and Vanilla cupcakes as our wedding cake, but I'll need 25 packs of them but M&S have said they can do this but obviously not until nearer the date, which makes sense as they will go off. My decision for this is that with the cost of buying the ingredients and the time etc and the fact that I'll be mega stressed, plus I'm not convinced that I'll do a good enough job, it will be cheaper in the long run. The ones in M&S are amazing with a dollop of strawberry jam in the middle...Yum.. yes we had to sample first.

We have also decided on Tankersley Manor for our Wedding Breakfast and Reception, just got to save for the deposit now.

I've also joined Blockbuster video store this week, they have an offer on at the moment rent 4 movies for 4 nights for £10 so I got the following Blu-Ray movies over 8 nights. I have also rated them.

17 Again ****

Marley and Me ***

Role Models ***

I Love you Man **

Frost/Nixon ***

Bride Wars **

New in Town *

He's just not that into you *

I think the only one that I will watch again is 17 Again all the others we ok but not fantastic.

To try and get into shape for my wedding I have started the Davina dvd, so for the first 30 mins I did Pump. I have never been so exhausted in my life and my face was the same colour as a beetroot, it took the same amount of time to cool down as it did to do the exercise, and omg did my thighs hurt for the next two days after. It was agony just getting up and down from my desk at work, I felt like an old woman. So three days later I embarked on my next 30 mins session, for this one I did Cardio Box. Again my face was very red but I think I like this one better, it involves lots of punching which I like and skipping with an imaginary rope. So back to Pump on Monday or Tuesday.

Here comes the Bride Pt2

2009-08-26T16:20:00.003Z

Well back in July 2008 I mentioned that I was getting Married, this is still the case but it's now more final. The ceremony has been booked at Sheffield Registry Office for the 15th April 2010 at 2pm, and we are looking at nearby venues for the Wedding Breakfast and Reception. So far we have looked at Tankersley Manor and The Garrison in Hillsborough. They are both really nice but very expensive. So at the moment I'm looking around a bit more. My invitations have been designed by myself, as I'm making them and I've decided on my cake which I'm hoping that my cousin is going to help me make, I'm wanting individual cupcakes tiered and a medium sized cake at the top. My theme colour is Cream and Apricot and my Grandad has offered to buy my dress I've just got to get to my weight goal to fit into it, so I've bought Davina's 30min workout to help me. My partners brother is going to do the photography so that saves a bit of money and that he is really good at taking photos so I know he will do a good job.

Nothing much else to report just really busy at work and getting myself prepared for starting my PostGrad Diploma in September, I passed my PG Certificate, but I was in two minds over whether to carry on, but work pay for it and next year will be easier as I know what to expect and hopefully will be able to manage my time a bit more and organise my wedding, so I thought it was silly not to carry on.

ET Phone home

2009-08-07T21:24:00.005Z

Again yes it's been three months since the last post, I will give myself a slap later. We now have a carpet in the bedroom which is a blue/grey/brown colour, it is very nice and doesn't get mucky as much as the cream one did.

We had our annual trip to London back in June, which was for the @media conference that K goes to, and a shopping/sightseeing trip for me. As I have been going to London for the past 4 years I have done most of the Museums that I'm interested in but have never been to the British Museum so on one of the days that K was at the conference I took myself off to the BM, it was handy that it was about 5 minutes from the hotel so I stopped in for a Starbucks coffee first, they are everywhere in London, we have about 10 in Sheffield but London must have about a trillion. So off I went camera in hand to the BM, I was really impressed with the museum but was a little disappointed at the lack of British stuff, yeah there were Roman stuff and a few British monuments but after seeing the 20th Mummy or the 50th Greek Vase I was quiet bored, plus I think I must have got lost about 15 times. The main highlight was having a argument with a German man, he was stood in front of the Rosetta Stone and was taking like a million photos, all I wanted was one then I could get on with looking at all the other crap, but would he move.....nope so I made myself very clear and barged my way in, I think he was quite surprised by my actions, what is annoying is that when I look at my photos of the stone, I can see his ugly face in the glass reflection.

The other day that I was free to please myself in London was spent mainly on the stupid London's Docklands Light Railway, in my attempt to get to Greenwich. all was going well on the journey from the Strand to Blackwall on the bus, then after finding that there isn't a bus from Blackwall to Greenwich all i was left with was the DLR, this started off well making my way to Poplar then the man over the tannoy said cross over to the other platform for trains to Lewisham and Canary Wharf, which was the way I needed, what he failed to tell me was that there were also other trains that went to Stratford, so I got on the first train that appeared only to realise I was going up instead of down, so after about 5 stops I decided to get off and get on the next train going back down, but this was easier said than done, there wasn't any trains going to Lewisham, but ones going to All Saints so I got on one of them, so in the end I made it to Canary Wharf and at this point I had been travelling over an hour from when I left the hotel. I was about to give up ever getting to Greenwich Maritime Museum when a train with Lewisham came, so off I went, got to the Cutty Sark and started to feel a little ill and couldn't find any signs for the museum so I gave up that, got on the river boat as I wasn't going on the DLR ever again in my life and made my way back to the London Eye. I'd never been on a riverboat on the Thames so was pleasantly surprised, to my annoyance though the boat was full of french foreign exchange children, which was quite amusing to listen to their conversations.

The rest of the holiday was really nice, the weather was fine and much food and drink was consumed. My only celebrity spotting, and it wasn't anyone that famous either, was sitting next to one of this years Big Brother contestants Sophie I think her name was, (the one with Lupus) in Eat on the South Bank.

Prior to London I upgraded my phone to a iphone 3GS which I love and it did prove very useful in London, being able to check my Oyster Card credit and get access to the Internet was a god send.

Oh I was on the Leicester Square Web cam, I came across the web cam a few weeks ago and when I told my colleague at work she said "oh my god you so have to go on that" so I was stood there phoning back to my friend in the office saying can you see me? when I got back in the office I had waiting for me was a print out of myself stood in Leicester Square, which was rather cool.

Things that are broken

2009-05-18T20:03:00.005Z

This past month it seems as though everything we own has broken, it started with the smoke alarm at stupid o'clock beeping and beeping, I took out the battery but still it beeped, forgot it was on the mains too, so as to not cause annoyance to the neighbours I disconnected it, making a mental note to get a 9v battery the next day, so the next day came and we went food shopping only to forget to buy a battery the one thing we needed. So it was another shopping trip to get the battery and all is well with that.

The second thing to go wrong was our water cooler, that decided it was going to get hot instead of cold, then totally give up the ghost so that got binned, I ordered another one from Amazon, and received the usual series of emails, you order had be placed, our order has been verified, your order has been dispatched etc etc. So there I was eager awaiting my purchase the estimated delivery date came and went no red ticket in the mail, nothing. It was only when I checked amazon it said it had been delivered, and gave me the tracking number, well I went to the delivery companies site and there it confirmed that it had been delivered, but I had been in all day on the day it said but there wasn't any buzz at the door or any knock. So where was my purchase, I thought one of our neighbours had taken it in, but still no-one came, it was only till later that night I checked outside our door that I found my purchase, just left there no note, no knock or anything. Thankfully we live in a block of apartments and there is only 2 apartments on the ground level, but we don't use the front door very often as we come in the patio doors as the main front door is up stairs off the main road, but it all ended ok.

The next thing to brake was our hot water heater, I was on my way to bed around midnight to find my bedroom carpet soaking wet, at first I was unsure where the water was coming from until I realised that it was coming from the heater. What do you do at Midnight? well I rung my insurance company thankfully they have a 24hrs hot line and our management company who also have a number for emergencies, well the guy on the other end of the phone was almost helpful, I think he was a little pissed off I was calling him, and disturbed his peaceful night, well he helped me turn off the water then all we could do was get some sleep and call the insurance people the next day, they were really good and sent someone straight away to sort out the carpet, we then got someone in to sort the heater, thankfully we could get cold water but no hot, but the only annoyance was the amount of money it was gonna cost, apparently we were meant to have the heater serviced every year but we weren't told this so the build up of gunk has cause it to brake, and it wasn't claimable on the insurance, at least we were covered for the carpet, the wardrobe and chest of drawers, which were also water damaged, but at least the new one doesn't have this anode thing on it so it is guaranteed for 25 years which is good. The only issue now is that the people who installed it haven't tightened the thermostats enough and it is slightly leaking, not major thankfully, towels are stopping it, and they are coming out on Wednesday to fix it. At least I now have hot water yippee. All I need to do now is go and choose a carpet.

Cinderella went to the Ball

2009-04-28T20:13:00.011Z

To be more precise Sarah went to the Masquerade Bad Taste Bear Ball. Didn't manage to get the dress but went in Gold sparkly tights, black skirt and a new top. My mask was finished in time but the bloody glitter went everywhere, and why after 2 weeks I'm still finding bits even in the most unlikely places where the glitter didn't touch.

The event was held at Bramall Lane where Sheffield United play, now I'm a Sheffield Wednesday fan so this wasn't going to be the perfect venue, but the room was ok and the food was slightly edible, a selection of wraps, sandwiches, potato wedges, tortilla chips and a selection of nice desserts. We still felt the need to visit the chippy afterwards though.

The event bear was called Fanny and she was a Burlesque dancer. I did well at this event as I only got a further 5 bears for the collection, we haven't been purchasing as many this year, due to the credit crunch and the fact there hasn't been many bears that we both like.

The entertainment for the night was two Burlesque dances going by the name of Missy Malone and Lola. They both did 2 dances each then a dance together at the end. Miss Malone was ok, a former belly dancer she looked the part with nipple tassels intact but the other girl Lola wasn't that good, she was too skinny and for a burlesque dancer you would have thought that she would have had a decent pair of boobs, but no they were flatter than a pancake. Maybe Miss Malone was making up for the pair of them.

I entered by Mask into the mask making competition but didn't even come close to winning, but I'm not really surprised as they were quite a lot of really good masks, and you could tell that more than 2 days worth of engineering had gone into them. At least mine has pride of place on the bookshelf in the office.

The next Bad Taste Bear event is in the summer at Warwick Castle, which also co-insides with the 10th anniversary of BTB so there will be a special bear to mark the occasion. We haven't decided if we are going yet, but we probably will be.

Egg tastic

2009-04-14T14:45:00.002Z

Again I've fallen into that trap of not updating, but fear not I will try to do this more often.

So what I have been doing? mainly writing essays for my masters which is slowly doing my head in, trying to study, work and all the house/family stuff is taking it's tole. I wouldn't recommend distance learning, it is pants. Thankfully I've only got 2 more essays to write and that's the first year done, I will have a postgraduate certificate, and to be honest I'll be glad to finish with just that, forget the diploma and the masters just give me the cert, but I'm guessing that my family won't let me. It will be like the rest of my life, doing stuff for other people and not for myself, don't get me wrong I enjoyed doing my degree but the added pressure to do well from my family wasn't enjoyable.

Happy (belated) Easter to all, thankfully I only got 2 Easter eggs this year, which I'm glad about as I've been experiencing a slight blip in the weight watching front. Don't worry I've not put it all back on, but I now weigh the same as I did Christmas week, so in 4 months I've been up and down more times than a yo yo, so stating this week I'm back onto pointing big style, so hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have hit the 3 stone barrier, and I'll be back on the right track.

As mentioned in my last post I was seeking a dress for the ball, well this Cinderella story isn't happening, yes I am going to the ball, but it won't be in a dress, probably the trusty black skirt and a new top, if I can find one that I like. I have started on my mask though I will post a picture when it is finished.

Frosty the snowman

2009-02-09T21:34:00.007Z

Well it has been snowing all last week and tonight we have more of the fluffy white stuff. It was fun for a while but now it's just damn annoying, all the world stops for a bit of snow. Schools were shut, trains and buses cancelled but thankfully the Supertram was still in action. The only thing that has been the most annoying is that I've been able to still make it into work, it's taken that little bit longer but still I've been there, whilst other people work from home (well they try to log on then give up and go back to bed or to the TV) I'm not bitter honest.

This weekend was the two local football teams clash in a Sheffield Derby. These teams are well known for hating each other and already this year Wednesday have been the better team and won one clash, but this weekend they did the double. Sheffield Wednesday beat United 2-1 at Bramall Lane. This, on the back of a 1-0 victory for the Owls at Hillsborough earlier in the season, gave Wednesday their first double over United since the 1913/14 season. Well deserved as well.

Another good thing that has happened is that the next Bad Taste Bear mini event is to be held in my home city of Sheffield, it's about time really I was getting a little sick of travelling all over the country for these little fellas. The only issue, well 2 issues really. One it's at Sheffield United football club and being a Wednesday supporter it's not ideal but having done the double as mentioned above it will be bearable (no pun intended). Two the theme of the event is Burlesque / Masquerade Ball. Although fancy dress is optional, this event is smart dress too. So I've got to find a cheap ball gown in fat size, good luck I here you cry. What would be perfect is that if I looked like Jennifer Connolly in Labyrinth and had her dress, but that's not going to happen between now and the 18th April. I'll keep you posted on the costume hunt.

let it snow..let it snow

2009-02-02T21:06:00.006Z

This weekend has been the mammoth of all weekends, we cleaned the flat from top to bottom and I did all my ironing. The thing is I hate ironing so I tend to leave it all in a pile in the bedroom, but I was sick of seeing it, and to be honest the bedroom was getting very messy with pile of clothes that need washing and lots of ironing. So all the lot had to go, not throw away no, the ironing had to be ironed and put away and the washing washed. Well I did in total about 4 hours ironing split into 2 sessions, one Saturday night and one Sunday night. The rest of Saturday comprised of sorting out the Office, getting rid of boxes and cleaning what must have been the entire dust mountain in the world. What I can't understand is how can such a small apartment like ours get so dusty, oh well it is now free of dust for the time being. Sunday was pretty the same cleaning and dusting the bedroom, living room, bathroom and kitchen. I even had time to bake some butterfly buns and have a shower.

What I did find quite interesting is the fact that whilst I was cleaning and hoovering usually I get very hot and sweaty, but now I've lost weight I was fine, no red and sweaty face or wet hair. I was truly amazed, plus I didn't get out of breath once. This is a big thing for me, I'm almost normal. The only downside is that my back is paying for it today, but not as much as would have been, had I not have been 2 stone lighter.

Talking about weight I've lost another 2lbs this week. I had a little blip over Christmas, but I'll let that one slide as it was the festival of food and niceness, but we are now back on track on the lard busting front.

On another note, it is snowing in Sheffield, now where I live we don't usually get that much snow, as we live in a dip but I was shocked this morning when I woke up to see about 2 inches of white fluffy snow, so out came the boots and off I went to work. Now we haven't got it half as much as down south where even all the London buses have stopped running, we just have delays and suspended services. But wait, it is forecast for more white precipitation overnight, so tomorrow might be a stay at home in the warm day hopefully, but I'm not holding my breathe because as I type this entry the snow has stopped and the existing snow on the cars etc is melting, so we will have to see.

A long time coming

2008-12-27T02:17:00.003Z

Yes again I've not posted on this blog for months, but don't dismiss me just yet I do have valid reasons. My boyfriend has been very ill since about August and had major surgery in November to replace a tube, so his kidney now works. This procedure went really well and even surprised the doctors. What surprised them even more was how quick he is recovering, this is also going really well, and his scars are getting better by the day.

So my take on Christmas, this year I was cooking Christmas day dinner as my boyfriend wasn't able to go to anyone house, so each year we take turns his parents Xmas day mine Boxing day then the opposite the next year and so on. But this year as it would have been our turn to go to my parents we invited them over to ours for me to do the cooking. I've never cooked for 5 people before especially a full roast(well to be fair my Dad did the meat) but I did veg and roast potatoes and I think it went rather well, no disasters. Note.. this is a one year only normal service resumes next year.

So Boxing day his family came over to ours for a Boxing day buffet with cold sandwiches and variety of meats and cheeses etc which also went down pretty well.

For Christmas I received, a Oral B electronic toothbrush which is amazing so good my boyfriend went out and bought one himself in the sales, crafting stuff, clothes, books, vouchers, Super Mario Galaxy for Wii, Scene it 2 for Xbox and lots of other things. So I did pretty well this year.

Again comes the time to make new years resolutions and last year I didn't stick to mine so this year I'm really going to try but haven't decided just yet what they are. On the weight front over Christmas I've managed to lose 3lbs which is good considering the chocolate and nice food, so in total since May I've lost 2 stone 6lbs which I don't think is too bad.

Summer of Discontent

2008-09-20T10:58:00.002Z

Again I know i've not been keeping this updated, but I've been a tad busy of the past few months. My Fiance has been in and out of hospital with Kidney problems and things are getting better so he has to have an operation in Nov, which neither of us are looking forward to, but i'm sure everything will be fine, and hopefully he will get better soon.

So what I have I been upto, well the new expansion pack for Sims 2 has come out it's called Apartment Life, and again EA Games have been working hard and i'm loving this new expansion. I'm also lookng forward to February when Sims 3 is coming out, not sure if my current PC will take it though.

I've also been involved in producing marketing marterial and photography for a collegues play "Hedda Gabler" by Ibsen, which opens at the Sheffield Drama Studio on Wednesday night, for more info go to here, or check out their facebook group, if you happen to be in Sheffield and want to see some amazing acting then this is the place, book your tickets now!!!

I'm now back to being a student again, i've enrolled to do a MA in E-communication, which i'm looking forward to, i'm doing it distant learning (studing at home with online teaching), so i'll still be working and work are paying for it which is even better, oh the perks of working for a University. I recieved my work books and module information the other week and looking over it briefly it seems a bit daunting but i'm sure once I get into it everything will be ok. Plus I know get Student Discount again which is ace.

Just an update on the weight front, i've now lost 2 stone 1 pound in total, which i'm really happy about, the only trouble is i've now got to start buying new clothes, as my own are very baggy, especially my jeans and trousers, I feel like a clown in them. Which also ties in very nicely with my birthday in 10 days time, so people can give me money and I can buy new clothes, woo hoo!!!

Daddy's taking me to the Zoo

2008-07-22T20:37:00.006Z

Well it's more of the other way round, I took my Dad to Whipsnade Zoo for the annual Bad Taste Bear event. The reason for taking Dad is that my partner was in Hospital this happened a couple of years ago, and he missed out on going to the West Midlands Safari Park, now not to criticize or anything but he isn't much of a zoo person and animals don't really excite him, apart from he likes the Penguins. But I know it's a coincidence and he didn't mean to land himself in the Northern General but he was really poorly, but thankfully after a week in hospital he is getting better, he isn't 100% just yet but he will get there.

So back to the Zoo, I really had a great time, it took us about 2 and a half hours to get there and we spent about 1 hour in the BTB bit then went to spend the rest of the day watching the animals, there are more photos on my Flickr site.

My favourite was the baby Giraffe it was so cute and only 2 days old. There was also a baby Rhino and baby Elephant that were equally as sweet. Thankfully the weather held up and we only had a little shower around lunchtime but nothing to warrant getting the brolly out, and the packed lunch we took was nice too.

Here comes the bride... da da da da and all that

2008-07-22T20:28:00.003Z

Just to keep you all updated, I'm getting married, hopefully next year, if I can get into the dress I've seen. It makes sense really as I've been engaged for nearly 4 years and we are slowly making progress in saving. So I've now found the book I bought when we first got engaged and have started looking around at venues etc, I've got a rough idea of colour theme and I know who is going to be my bridesmaids, for a start my cousin Gemma and my to be sister-in-law and her son as my Paige boy. I've got my chief hen night coordinator Kelly who will definitely give me a night to remember she is really a top bird and a great friend. I've got my partner's brother in charge of photos and I'm making my own invitations plus my hairdresser makes cakes so that bits sorted. All i need to think about is who to invite.

I will keep you all posted on the developments of the planning.

Lego rocks!!!

2008-06-25T19:33:00.004Z

Well I'm now into week 10 of my Weight Watches diet and I'm 17lbs lighter, which I'm ecstatic about and I'm starting to see a difference in my features. I'm slowly losing my double chin and for the first time in a while I've got my neck back whoo hoo!!! but i can't get too exited I've still got a long way to go.

I've been reading a book that started off as a blog called "The amazing adventures of Dietgirl" I'm addicted to this book, it's about a girl from Australia who has lost 12 and a half stone and hats off to her, she has done it over 6 years and I really admire her determination, I just hope I can achieve the same determination and achieve my goals.

So since my last post I've been in London for a weeks holiday which was ace, there were lots of photo taking and walking around and two amazing meals at Garfunkel's, if you ever go to London you have to experience a Garfunkel's Burger, they are just so nice, the meat melts in your mouth and their chips are so divine. I've still got to upload my photos to Flickr but hopefully I'll get round to it this weekend.

Currently I'm so addicted to Lego Indiana Jones on the Xbox 360, much to my boyfriends annoyance. I'm one of those people that likes to collect everything I need to get all the artifacts, all the parcels and all the characters and won't stop till I've completed it all. Then once I've done that I'm going back to Lego Star Wars and go and complete all that too.

I'm also sort of watching Big Brother, now I've watched them all but in my opinion the first three were the best and it has gone down hill since, but I've not got into the obsession just yet on this series and I'm not sure I will hit that stage. All I can really say I'm glad that Alex got kicked out as she was a nasty piece of work, even though she claims that BB edited it so it makes her look bad and that what she was saying was out of context, but what I don't understand is what other context should it have been taken in, she said those words and they were offensive and she was being a bully to Steph, Mo and Rebecca, which is wrong.

The next Bad Taste Bear event is fast approaching and this years summer event is atWhipsnade Zoo, I'm very looking forward to this one as I've been wanting to go to Whipsnade for a while now, I love Zoo's and animals.

Weighting Issues

2008-05-13T19:08:00.003Z

Since I last updated I have started Weight Watches I've only been doing it fully for 2 weeks as I have had to buy some new digital scales but so far I've lost 7lb which I'm quite proud off. I had my doubts thinking that it wouldn't work, as I've tried other diets but I'm getting to like this one. I'm not going to meetings as I refuse to pay £5.50 for someone to tell me I'm fat, so I've got two work colleagues that go to the meetings so they have got me the Eating out guide and the Shopping guide and a calculator and I'm finding it quite easy I can have 29 points a day and to be honest I'm struggling to find thing to eat to fill my points up, as you have to use them all up. What has made a difference is not drinking fizzy drinks and cutting down my portion sizes. So hopefully in maybe a year or 2 I'll be able to fit into my dream wedding dress.

I'm off to London in 2 weeks for a weeks holiday, I'm so looking forward to it and I'll get to try out my new camera to it's full potential.

Girls on Film....well Digital

2008-03-24T10:20:00.003Z

I've got a new camera, yippee. It's a Canon G9 12.1 mega pixels and it is my new best friend. This is the best camera I've ever had and I've been going around taking lots and lots of pictures, you can see these pics on my Flickr site. So I'm going to spend most of the Easter holidays taking pictures. Plus I'm going to London at the end of May so I will be taking loads and loads there too.

So it's now Easter and I've done quite well for Easter eggs, now I will let you into a secret I'm 27 and I still love getting Easter eggs, granted these days you are really paying for all the packaging but the added bonus of chocolate and the occasional mug is great, and the best bit is K doesn't like the egg bit so I get all his too, yummy.

I've also just installed Vista on my computer which is nice, not as good as my Mac but ok all the same. I'm still slowly getting used to where things are compared to XP, but I'm sure it will be fine in the end.

Must....Must.......Must

2008-02-20T22:33:00.007Z

Yes I must update this more often, once a month for the past 5 months is unacceptable, but when you are as busy as me you tend to forget about the important things of updating your blog, no seriously I have been busy....well maybe a little. Ok we have our nice shiny blue new car yippee, this car is (cue for a song..) Automatic, It's systematic, It's hydromatic well maybe its no Grease Lightning, but it is pretty damn cool, the best car I've ever had, and it only took me three weeks to drive the thing, plus I can park it too, which is an achievement even for me.

Another new thing I got was my new phone. Let me put this into context for you all, I have a Sony Ericsson K800i and I love it, a couple of weeks ago it let me down and wouldn't switch on so off it went back to 02 who kindly fixed it, but it was still doing weird things like corrupting my messages then deleting them without warning, but once I'd updated my gprs settings it seemed to stop. Now I'm coming to the end of my 18 month contract with o2 and I wasn't going to update but simply switch tariffs to 02 Simplicity and keep my K800i. But with all the problems I was having and with the BF's iphone problems with bluetooth not talking to the Tomtom. I decided that I would upgrade and BF can have the K800i for the Tomtom simple no? Then I had the dilemma of what phone to get, I like my Sony Ericsson but wasn't too struck on the K850i until I played with the one a friend had, well to cut a long story short I now have a Sony Ericsson K850i and I love it more than the K800i. The camera is amazing and the sound quality so much better, the reason I was unsure about it was because of the little square blue buttons rather than the little joystick thing, I thought that there was no way I could txt without hitting one of the buttons in the square, but again Sony Ericsson have come out tops the little square buttons are slightly raised so you don't catch them when texting which is great. So all in all a great phone.

At the moment I've been getting nice new things and another of these nice new things is a MacBook, which was given to me by my lovely BF (only coz he got himself a MacBook Pro, but I'm very grateful all the same). Now let me explain I learnt everything I know about computing on a PC, Microsoft thru and thru, but this all changed when I did a Graphic Design job where I was working on a Mac and I had bought my first Ipod, but deep down in my heart I though..... there is not a cat in hells chance of even owning a Mac so I went on dreaming, but storing up in my head what I'd learnt on the Mac as you never know when it might come in handy. So here I am typing this to you on a Mac, but the sad thing is I still love my PC for it holds my trusty Sims 2 game (yes I know you can buy it for the Mac but I don't wanna ok) and speaking of Sims 2 the next expansion pack is coming out next Friday the 29th it's called Free Time and I'm so looking forward to buying it.

Ok so I hope this post has met with your satisfactions of length for a months worth of nothingness, but I will try to post more I promise.

Post Xmas Blues

2008-01-21T21:32:00.000Z

Well Christmas is now over and I can't believe that we are over half way into January. My Christmas was really cool, I spent my holiday between both sets of families which was really good. For Christmas I got some really nice presents including a Nintendo Wii, Wii games, some books, craft things, a tiger (don't worry not a real one, a adopted one from the WWF), loads of clothes, a donut maker and chocolates.

Now that Christmas is over the only thing to look forward to is Easter when I'm next on holiday from work. Oh and our new car which will arrive next week. Nothing else really has been happening apart from this weekend when all the weather has been doing is raining, what I'm hoping is that we don't have the amount of rain we had in the summer but I've been very vigilant with the weather watch and keeping informed with the flood watches just in case, as I don't want to have a repeat of the summer's floods. Some places near where I live have had local floods but ours has been ok, plus one of the main reasons we flooded in the summer was a tree got stuck under the bridge near my house.

Anyway I'm going to sign off now and finish watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which is on one of the movie channels on Sky.

Pre Xmas

2007-12-21T20:54:00.000Z

Again, I'm going to have to update this more often but I always forget, and to be honest my life is pretty boring. Thank god I've now finished my Xmas shopping and I'm sooooo glad, this year it has been horrid, and today didn't help. Standing in a queue in HMV to find then the tills go down and they are only excepting cash payments, so i had to leave the queue go to the cash machine then re-join the queue again, which was the full length of the store. To put it lightly I wasn't amused.

But the upside to all this I've got my Wii for Christmas, I managed to leg it to HMV on Tuesday, thanks to my boss letting me leave work for 20 mins in the middle of the day to rush to the other side of town. I'd previously rung the store and they had 4 left well, i was the last person that day to get one. Lucky me, but i think various store are slowly getting more stock in now. It's sitting nicely wrapped under my tree. I will let you know what i think of it after Xmas.

I had my works Xmas do on Monday night we went to Cafe Rouge again this year, and just like last I had the same menu choices and it was well worth the £20 for 3 courses. Totally enjoyed it. This year I was in charge of co-ordinating Secret Santa at work, the budget was £3 and the theme was silly and the item had to beginning with the letter S. I think it went ok, there were a few moans about the letter choice but everyone managed to get a gift starting with S, mine was a Kids Fake Ferrari F1 car. Yes I know this doesn't technically begin with S but it does state on the box Supercar so that counts, well according to the person who bought it anyway. So good times had by all.

I'll sign off now, hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Long time coming

2007-11-07T19:16:00.000Z

Well, I'm not doing really well at keeping this blog up to date am I? It's now November and the last post was in September a whole 2 months have passed. But the annoying thing is they have been really uninteresting months. I've just been doing nothing but being really busy.

I celebrated my 27th birthday which was really nice, my BF and I went to TGI Friday's, the meal was nice but overpriced it's a good job i had vouchers. I had some nice presents for my b'day, a lovely ipod nano video, various craft items and money which is always a winner.

October went by in a blur, again really busy but nothing really to pin point what has happened. But I know it involved playing lots of Sims 2 and learning InDesign CS2, I know the basics but wanted to brush up on the other things that I thought I knew how to do but don't.

Last weekend we had friends over, which was really great. Whats nicer than just relaxing and catching up with friends. This weekend will be slightly more hectic as we are both in London, my BF is down there for an award presentation on his works website and I'm down to shop and eat Krispy Kreme donuts oh and for my BF to purchase the new iphone.

Well in 47 days it will be Christmas, I'm quite looking forward to it this year as my BF's Nephew will be nearly 4 and he understands more about Christmas now and it should be a good day with him opening his pressies and creating havoc around the place, and also the fact that my BF is buying me a Wii and I'm sooooo looking forward to one.

Actioned Packed Weekend

2007-09-09T20:40:00.000Z

The weekend of the 17th Aug was hectic but great, the weather held out but the traffic didn't. We set off on the Friday morning on our journey to Kent to the annual Bad Taste Bear outing. We had a reasonable journey down but hit traffic on the M25, going at 50mph on a motorway isn't great and I think at one point my BF put the hand brake on because we weren't even moving. But we arrived safely, and with only about half an hour added on to our journey time.

Our first stop off was Bluewater shopping centre, the reason for this is that like any other gal i like shopping and more importantly I like Krispy Kreme donuts. I first discovered KK at Harrods in London and fell in love with the little dough circles, they are the best donuts in the whole world, but the only problem is that up north were I live we haven't had the luxury get so I took this opportunity of going to Bluewater to sample some more of these wondrous delights, well 12 donuts later and I'm stuffed. I just want to make it clear I didn't eat them all, I did have some help.

Now Bluewater isn't a bad shopping centre but I feel that I had worked myself up for it to be twice the size of our Local shopping mall, Meadowhall but I was surprised that I think it might be just a little bigger. There are more expensive shops at BW and the most important one the Lego shop, where i nearly lost my BF, it was like a little child in a sweet shop, bless...

So we checked in our hotel that night and had a well deserved rest from all the shopping and donuts.
The next day was the trip to the event, which was at Groombridge place gardens in Kent, and also in the middle of nowhere, thank god for SatNav.

The event was really good, we got our bears and goodie bag, and then joined the queue for the shop, another 14 or so bears later we joined the queue for the tombola, at £5 per go we limited ourselves to 4 goes but the prizes were rare bears, so later in the day we had another few goes. Things were starting to run out, the shop was fast running out of stock and so was the tombola, it was apparent that one collector had spent £400 on the tombola, now in my book this isn't fair, the organisers really should have done something about this or limited the amount of goes you were able to have. Oh well we were glad with our wins and thankful we went to the shop first. We had a look around the gardens then went back to the hotel.

On the way home the next day we stopped off in Slough to visit friends, so all in all a very good but tiring and expensive weekend.

And the rain came

2007-08-05T20:15:00.000Z

Sorry for not posting for about 2 months but I've been rather busy and it's been until recently that I've had time to get back to normal and finally update my blog. Well from the title of this post i refer to the recent spell of rain, we were affected by the floods in South Yorkshire and had to spend an evening in the town hall in Sheffield and a few nights in the city centre Travel Inn. But despite it all we are now back to normal and the insurance company have been great and paid out. We were quite fortunate compared to the people in Doncaster and down south they have had it really bad and are still in temporary accommodation.

I can't believe that in June/July we were having great downpours and then for example today and the past week it's been in the 70's F. It seems to have all come at once. Hopefully it will still be nice on the 17Th as this is the weekend we are going to Kent to the annual Bad Taste Bear summer outing, this year it is at Groombridge place gardens, it looks like a action packed weekend.

Film Reviews May

2007-05-30T13:12:00.000Z

Spider-man 3

The highly anticipated third chapter of the popular Spider-Man series sees Peter and Mary Jane finally together, but three new enemies, the Sandman, Venom and Spidey's old enemy, the New Goblin, his best friend, Harry Osborn, threatens the lives of people close to Peter

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco

I was quite disappointed with this film, I wasn’t really holding out much hope as I didn’t really warm to the second spidy film. There were too many bad guys trying to get in on the lime light, and the scene with Peter struting down the street was a little cheesy. I think the Spiderman films are going from bad to worse and with another 3 in the pipeline, I think they are going to spoil it.

My Rating:

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Captain Barbossa, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann must sail off the edge of the map, navigate treachery and betrayal, and make their final alliances for one last decisive battle. Beckett, now with control of Jones' heart, forms a dark alliance with him in order to rule the seas and wipe out the last of the Pirates. Now, Jack, Barbossa, Will, Elizabeth, Tia Delma, and crew must call the Pirate Lords from the four corners of the globe, The Pirate Lords want to release the goddess Calypso, Davey Jones's damned lover, from the trap they sent her to out of fear, the Pirate Lords must combine the 9 pieces that bound her to undo it and release her. With this, all pirates will stand together and will make their final stand for freedom.

Starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knighley, Geoffrey Rush

With this film I saw the trailer and thought oh my god it looks sooooo good, then when I got into the cinema and the film started I thought this is a bit drawn out. Although the plot is ok and follows on from the first two films, I didn't think it got anywhere, where was all the squashbuckling. Plus we get the open end of a possible sequel. I thought the graphics were really good and any film with Johnny and Orlando tickes the boxes in my book, but it will never be as good as the first film. All in all I think this has fallen into the trap of death of the 2nd sequel.

My Rating:

Electricity Update + Reviews

2007-05-30T10:59:00.000Z

Well, it wasn't a faulty RCD trip it was the waterheater the element had gone in the thermastat which was causing it to trip. So the electrician turned off the side of the boiler that were tripping and everything is fine now, we still have hot water and heating, just need the builder to get a new element.

I have been to see 2 other films that I still need to write my reviews on plus within this month i've been to 3 music concerts so I will write a review on those soon.

Electricity Blues

2007-05-13T11:15:00.000Z

The reason for me not keeping upto date with my blog, is the unfortunate events that have affected us at the moment. It all started about a month ago when we started to experience problems with our electricity, the switches for the sockets kept on tripping. We thought it was the new power supply that my partner had bought for his new computer, we thought it might be too powerful, so we took it back to Bolton at Scan computers as the power issue effected the motherboard, but Scan didn't find a problem, we came back home and everything worked ok. But it was still tripping when we boiled the kettle, we then went out to buy a new kettle, but that didn't work either still tripping. It was then time to speak to an elecrician he came over and checked all the sockets and moved the kitching socets on to the main board not the RCD side, which worked.

A week later it starts tripping again and this time it was tripping when only the phone was plugged in and at times when nothing was plugged in or switched on. so again another phone call and visit from the sparky, fortunatly he sent someone else who knew what he was doing, so the problem was the RCD trip it was tripping at 12mA rather than 30. So the sparky is coming back on Monday to fit the new RCD trip, thankfully he gave us power over the weekend so my partner didn't miss Eurovision.

Film Review Pt2

2007-03-25T18:40:00.000Z

Music & Lyrics

A washed up singer (Grant) is given a couple days to compose a chart-topping hit for an aspiring teen sensation. Though he's never written lyrics in his life, he sparks with an offbeat younger woman (Barrymore) with a flair for words.

Starring: Hugh Grant & Drew Barrymore

I absolutely loved this film, Hugh and Drew play the perfect characters and the film is so easy to watch and really funny. Hugh Grant took singing and piano lessons to play the 80's pop character, and this really shows. His singing isn't great but seeing him dance is hilarious. The story is focused around a 80's pop star who was once part of the duo whose singing partner has gone onto better things loosely based on the story of Wham. Drew's character is a scatty plant waterer, who has a talent for writing lyrics. From then on in, it's the usual boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl stuff it up, then boy public declares his feelings to get girl back and boy and girl live happily ever after.

My rating:

Film Review

2007-03-11T20:33:00.000Z

Aside from my daily life ramblings I've decided to use my blog as a film and music review space, depending on what I'm listening too at the time and what films I've recently been to see at the cinema, I will share my findings with you all.

Just to provide a little background, both me and my partner and most of my immediate friends have monthly cinema passes for our local cinema which is Cineworld. These passes are £10.99 a month and you can go and see as many films as you like whenever you like, which at £5.50 for a adult ticket each time, you only have to go twice a month and you are quids in, specially if there are lots of films that you wanna see out. What I like about it though is that you can easily go and see that film that you would like to see, but wouldn't paid full price to see it, or you can just go and see anything and it doesn't really matter if it wasn't as good as you expected you haven't really lost out. If you are a avid film goer like we are, I fully recommend getting one.

Ok, background over. What I'm going to do is a round up of the month and what films I've seen and what music I'm listening too.

So I'll back track to the beginning of the year, please bear in mind I've not been an active cinema goer as much as I'd like this year.

Films Seen:

The Fountain

Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.

Starring: Hugh Jackman & Rachel Weisz

This film has to be the weirdest film I've seen for a long time. For the first 30 mins I didn't know what the hell what happening, and I was really struggling to follow the plot of the three different stories that were being portrayed. It's one of those films that show you the ending at the beginning then the story unfolds and you end up thinking at the end, "oh yeah I understand now" but even at the end of the film I was really confused and it was a very mixed up mess in my head.
Hugh Jackman plays the centre character in all three of the stories which focuses around his Ill wife and the search for everlasting love and immortality. In one of the stories Hugh has completely shaved off his hair and looks very odd, but still attractive. Overall a decent and very intelligent film.

My rating:

Because I said so

A mother whose love knows no bounds or boundaries. She is the proud mom of three daughters: who, when it comes to men, is like psychotic flypaper. In order to prevent her youngest from making the same mistakes she did, Daphne decides to set Milly up with the perfect man.

Starring: Diane Keating, Mandy Moore, Gabriel Macht, Tom Everett Scott, Lauren Graham & Piper Perabo

A truly funny romantic comedy, a story about a single mother (Diane Keating - Daphne) who tries to do her best for her three daughters in particularly her youngest played by Mandy Moore (Milly). In order to find her the perfect man she places an ad on the Internet and vets them all before settling on a very wealthy architect. Meanwhile a musician (Johnny) who had been watching Daphne's vetting sweeps into Milly's life and proves the better choice. Through a battle between mother and daughter love prevails and the right man gets the girl, along with Daphne picking up a love interest in the form of Johnny's father. The only downside to this movie was the need to incorporate a song, I know Mandy Moore is a singer but she makes a better actress, I didn't think it warranted a sing-a-long.

My rating:

Music: Take That - Shine, The Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby, Mika - Grace Kelly

Valentines Day

2007-02-16T12:09:00.000Z

I've not got a great fondness for Valentines Day, I just think it's just another day to spend x amount of money, saying that though I do like receiving presents.

This year I bought my fiance Da Vinci's Secret as he loves puzzle things. I got 2 Bad Taste Bear figurines the Red Hot Pussys, which I've been wanting for a while now, so now I only need the last 2 top complete the mini set.

I asked my Fiance what he was cooking me for a Valentines meal at home, the reply I got was did I want to be ill the next day? my answer was no I didn't, this is the reason why I do all the cooking in our house. Never mind, so then my next question was well if your not cooking, then where are you taking me? This then meant he had to find a table for 2 on Valentines day, which he did, The Boardwalk at Valley Centertainment in Sheffield at 9:15pm. So at 8:30 that evening we arrived and drove round for a while to find a car parking space, no luck it was all full, even the little bits of pavement had cars on them, it looked like it does when someone is playing at Sheffield Arena as people tend to park in the centertainment to avoid paying £5 parking in the arena.

So we had to abandon the Boardwalk and find somewhere else, luckily just down the road is a TGI Friday's, a place where I've not been before. So we tried there, they had loads of tables and space to park. I had a Cheese Burger and the fiance had a BBQ Burger, plus we shared Garlic Bread. The meal and service was very nice and the same price range as the Boardwalk.

You might be thinking that we could have got a burger anywhere but we aren't the type of people who order something they have never had for the fun of it, we tend to stick to things we know we like that isn't going to make us ill.

So a nice Valentines meal was had by all.

Sims 2 Life Stories

2007-02-11T17:04:00.000Z

I know I've not really been updating this as often as I would like, but since Xmas I've not really had time to do anything. Apart from sort of catching up with the washing and ironing.

I'm totally addicted to the Sims 2, I have all the expansion packs and the ones for my Nintendo DS plus on Friday a new stand alone Sims package called Sims Life Stories came out, and as it is Laptop friendly I thought great have to buy that, which I did and it is laptop friendly. What it does is go through the life of two characters and you have to achieve certain goals and aspirations, which is like what you do in Sims but this has chapters that you follow what the story is about, as well as having the function of being able to play your own stories on endless play.

So I've not really been keeping to the new years resolution of buying stuff that I don't really need, but I do enjoying playing Sims, so I get my money's worth out of it, so in my book it's worth the £27.95 I paid for it.

Flickr

2007-01-06T17:23:00.000Z

I just love Flickr, if you don't know what Flickr is, it is the best online photo management and sharing application in the world, what you can do is register for free and upload your photos and share them with the rest of the world. If you want more out of Flickr then you can subscribe for a year, which I have done and it's the best £13 i've spent this year. Check out my Photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarah_pics/

The Year 2007

2007-01-03T13:27:00.000Z

I just wanted to wish all the people that read my blog a Happy New Year and I hope that 2007 is a great year for achieving all your goals and wishes.

I have a tendency to not make new year resolutions as I can't keep them, but this year I would like to try, so my new years resolutions are as follows

To eat more healthy and not to snack on rubbish throughout the day
To not buy unnecessary items to try and save money, as I buy too many things that I don't really need.
To be more assertive both at work and at home

I will hopefully try and keep these, I've managed the first one so far, but we are only on day 3.

Xmas meal

2006-12-20T11:31:00.000Z

As I mentioned in my last post, it's was our office's Xmas meal last night. We went to Cafe Rouge in Sheffield and had the 3 course Christmas meal. This is what I had:

Starter:
Soupe D’Hiver
A rich, honey roast parsnip and sweet potato soup
Main:
Dinde Rôtie de Noël
Roast turkey with a caramelised onion, chestnut & sage stuffing served with bacon wrapped sausages, Winter vegetables and roast potatoes
Dessert:
Tartelette aux Cerises
Warm griotte cherry & almond tart served with crème fraîche

It was all very nice, and I would recommend the place. The service was good and the price was excellent value for money.

This year we took part in Secret Santa, we were all told to buy something amusing and silly with the budget of £2.50. Secret Santa bought me a childrens shape ball, which is a large ball with different shapes cut out of it and you have to slot the correct coloured shapes through the correct shape hole. This proved hours of fun when highly toxicated.

D-Day Part 2

2006-12-19T11:45:00.000Z

As from the title, and for people who are familiar with my blog, D-Day stands for Driving test day. Yes today I sat my driving test for the 2nd time, and I passed, big cheer for me Yippee!!!! I'm very happy about it and with only 6 days left till Xmas its a great present. I only got 2 minors, which is really good and the instructor said it was a great drive. I think what made it better is that I knew what to expect and wasn't at nervous this time round.

I decided to book the whole day off work, so I can finish off my Xmas shopping, and also get ready for tonight, as it's my works Christmas meal and silly secret Santa exchange. I will tell you all about it later.

Holiday's are coming, holiday's are coming etc etc

2006-12-05T16:08:00.000Z

Christmas is only just round the corner, Yippeee!! I love christmas, it is really the only time of year that I can be a kid again and resaonably get away with it.

From past experience I do tend to leave the t'old xmas pressie shopping till the last minute, but this year both myself and my partner have started early and have just about got all those all inportant presents, big pat on the back for me. But in every family there is the one person that is a knightmare when it comes to buying for, this person in my family is my Grandad, at least when my Nan was alive I could get ideas from her, but sadly now this is not the case and my mum is in the same boat as me, we both do not know what to buy him. Every year I seem to buy him the same things, Gilette razor blades and shaving stuff, now this is all and well for about 2 years running but when it is both xmas and b'day I can imagine that you get a bit bored with the same stuff. So if you have any ideas what to get a 76 year old male suggestions please.

My partner and I always have a limit on how much we are spending on each other and this year set that limit of £100. I have gone over by £31 and I think my partner has gone over quite a bit. But I find this annoying that now this makes me feel that I should be spending more, so that he has more presents. But then it makes me feel that he should have stuck to the orginal plan. Oh well it just means I get more pressies. Yeah!!! But this didn't take into account the dilema of the Xbox 360. My partner is a techie and loves his gadgets, this is an expensive hobby, but don't really mind too much as my hobbies are quite expensive in their own right. But on his xmas list was an Xbox 360. I debated this for some weeks and decided against it as we really couldn't afford it, but after some deliberation I crummbled under pressure, and off we went to our shopping centre and bought aformentioned xbox. This is all and well, but my partner then had to get it out of the box and set it all up, just to make sure it worked. I wanted to wrap it up for xmas, but there isn't really the point now as it is in pride of place next to the tv. So now the money spent on my partner has ballooned over the said amount of £100. But I don't expect him to spend a further £300 on me as we really can't afford that.

Angel's & Demons

2006-11-14T14:23:00.000Z

Firstly for those who haven't a clue what I'm talking about I'll give a little background to this event. Me and my partner collect Bad Taste Bears, these are little bear figurines with a Bad Taste persona. We are both collector members and each year they have an event where other collectors can get together and socialise. This year as well as the yearly event BTB have decided to hold mini events which the Angel and Demons is the first one.

I didn't get my different coloured shoes but a nice pair of silver sandals and a silver bag so they matched.

The event was in Blackpool so we set off about 11:45 and got there just after 2pm we couldn't check in till 2 anyway so we got there just about right, apart from having a detour round Blackpool looking for the hotel as I had the postcode wrong for TomTom, we stopped and called in at the travel information place, where the lady wasn't really that helpful, she seem to assume that I knew where all the roads were. Oh well we got there in plenty of time, the event didn't start till 5pm. So having had a bit to eat and sorting out our costumes it was time to call a taxi and head off. The weather was really not nice, there was a drizzle of rain and the winds were gale force, I had a few incidents with my costume wings. But safely inside everything was fine.

The event was really good and we got to meet a few collectors along the way, didn't speak to half as many people as we would like, but oh well next time we might have more chance. The event consisted of a quiz, the blood brothers, Pete (the creator) Underhill's questions and answers speech, buffet and Disco oh and the fancy dress contest. Didn't win but never mind I thought my costume was cool.

But overall we both had a great time and can't wait for the next one.

Bonfire Knightmare

2006-11-07T12:46:00.000Z

Well, I was really looking forward to Bonfire night, with all the hotdogs and jacket potatos to eat. But sadly I didn't get to go to my uncles as I was really ill on Friday night which left me bed bound on Saturday, and still not 100% on the Sunday/Monday. So I missed all the lovely food and smells, luckly the house over the carpark from us was having a bonfire and fireworks so I got to watch theirs instead all from the comfort of my bedroom. The joys of fireworks you can watch everyone elses.So alas I will have to wait for another year.

We are off to sunny Blackpool on Saturday for an Angel's and Demons evening at the Pleasure beach. Both my partner and I are collectors of the Bad Taste Bears and they have events for the members, the A&D is one of there events, but it looks like a good time will be had by all, oh and it's fancy dress, I have my costume just about sorted just need shoes, my costume is half angel and half demon so the shoes have to be one white and one red, hopefully I can pick up a cheap pair of white strappy shoes and paint one red.

To do well and not Mock!!

2006-11-03T08:42:00.000Z

My BF has decided it's a good idea to read my blog, and to make fun of me of what i've wrote. He needs to be aware that it's not nice to be made fun of, and should remember to not bite off the hand that feeds him. So if you are reading this then I would strongly think about not mocking me or you could find yourself in very deep waters.

On a nicer note, its bonfire night this weekend, and we are going to my uncles for a bonfire party tomorrow night. This should be fun, as my uncle has a quite small garden with little room for setting fireworks off at the recommended distance away from spectators. I'm not keen on the whole firework thing, you see I am quite a jumpy person, and loud bangs make me jump, (which is something else by BF has a good laugh about) so I tend to stay indoors, but what I do like about Bonfire night is the food and the nice warmly smells. If I could have that without the loud bangs then I would be happy.

Mid 20's

2006-11-01T13:21:00.000Z

I was looking at this blog today and thinking that a) it's been a while since my last post and b) I am now over the mid point in my twenties ( I had my 26th Birthday a month ago). To me this a great milestone, but also now puts my life in perspective.

When I was younger at the age of about 16 I used to say to myself that by the time that I was 26 I would like to be in a stable relationship possibly married with a child or one on the way, own my own house and have a respectable career. Well here's the reality, yes I am in a very stable relationship, with the possibility of a not too distant wedding, no children or even the possibility of one (not planning on any just yet), yes I do own my own home with aforementioned partner, and as for the respectable career, I would say it was rather respectable, still learning things and getting to grips with the whole job.

So in a nut shell i'm nearly there with what I espired to be when I was 16. But it's only been in the last 3 years that this has all come together and I still sometimes feel the urge to think back to what if i didn't go on that Flash course in May 2004 and didn't meet the man of my dreams, how different my life would be. But I know that it wouldn't be as nice as it is now.

So much for holidays

2006-09-11T12:06:00.000Z

Well the week i'd given myself for destressing before the new job didn't quite go as planned, you see my partner was rushed into hospital on the Thursday evening with acute pains in his side, unfortunatly for him it was 3 hours later before they gave him any pain relief, by this time it was 3am myself and his parents were very tired. I sent them home to get some rest whilst i stayed with my BF. They eventually got him a bed Friday lunchtime on the spinal injuries ward, where all his notes and doctor he sees are there. They let him out the following Thursday with a nice stash of antibiotics which have been making his memory worse. Thankfully he is ok now.

The new job is going really well and the people are really friendly and nice.

The W word

2006-08-13T17:31:00.000Z

Friday the 11th Aug: My last day working for the training provider, i am so relieved. Don't get me wrong i loved my job, it's the people i couldn't stand, some of them were good friends and i will try to keep in touch with them, but the others i'm certanly not going to miss. The company knew Head Office had people problems, and were trying to boost moral by weekly quizzes and get this a bowling trip, but as with everything that you try and change you soon get the same click bowling together and being on the same team and leaving others out. You might as well just chuck money down the drain.

All that is behind me now, as i look forward to new pastures on the Work front. I've given myself a week off to recharge my batteries, before the long slog up to xmas in a new job role. Wish me well.

D-Day

2006-08-13T17:25:00.001Z

Well today was my D-Day, (Driving Test Day), everything was going really well, then... the examiner told me to turn right up this big hill, bear in mind i've never even been up this hill before, either as a passenger or a driver. So i was mainly focusing on getting up the hill, didn't expect there to be a blind sharpe bend at the top, put it this was i was going a bit fast and cliped the curb, whilst trying to get round the corner. Then meeting a road sweeper so had to brake for that. I knew at that point that i had failed and guess what that's what the examiner failed me on.

At the end he asked me if i had taken the test before, and i hadn't this was my first time and he was quite suprised as i only got 7 minors. But never the less he still failed me, then thought it would be a good idea to say if you had slowed down when approaching the bend i would have passed. Nothing like kicking a gal down.

After my test i asked my partner if he would drive up the aformentioned hill and he did the same as me, plus there wasn't even a slow down sign on the floor.

Oh well better luck next time.

On the Sabbath Day.....

2006-08-13T17:25:00.000Z

We got burgled, just because we have a ground floor apartment does not mean that little thieves can steal my stuff. The most annoying thing is that we were in the apartment at the time. Thankfully we were both ok, and all they stole were my handbag and my ipod, but that’s not the principle, people should not steal or enter properties uninvited. So I had a great Sunday afternoon stopping all my cards and a visit from the local plod, apart from taking a statement they had time to decide which takeaway they were going to be visiting for their dinner, I’m so glad they are dedicated to their jobs!!!!

Still a week later and locks changed etc, I’m slowly getting my cards back, I hate it when you go into a shop or even walk down the street and see things that you really want to buy, but you can't coz you have no money, well not directly true you have the money but don't have access to it coz the bank hasn't sent you your card back yet. They tease you by sending the pin number but you have to wait the whole week till you get the card.

God (father-in-law to be) created shelves

2006-08-13T17:24:00.000Z

Since my last entry the hole in the wall has now become a shelf, thanks to the wonderful job of my fiance and my father-in-law to be, we were going for the whole 3 shelf thing, but quite frankly after the performance with the first shelf the other two have been banished to the cupboard never to grace my walls again. A word of advice Do Not buy shelves from Argos.

Well that time has come around again, yes Big Brother has started in the UK, and there are the usual bunch of weird people in the world, but i still find myself getting up on a Satuday morning, switching the TV onto E4 and watching the housemates sleep. Why oh Why do i do this, i know they will be sleeping and i know that as soon as they wake up the sound will go to birds and trains, but i'm still sat there watching. Really i need to get out more!! and will somebody get Shabaz out of the house, i wish he would walk please please let him walk!!!

Meal

2005-01-31T10:21:00.000Z

Well the meal went ok, I had Lasagne which was really nice, and the four pints of lager when down really well, now for people that know me lager makes me really drunk, but this time didn't affect me much, well not as much as just before xmas did when I went out with a friend and was rather drunk, my other half thought it was rather funny.

Anyway Wednesday I had a sausage and egg butty from the rat van across the road from work, and put it this way I was rather ill come Wednesday night/Thursday morning and I'll not be going there for a long time. What really bugs me is that I've had these butties before and I've been fine, but I might have tipped the boat from the night before, I've never been in so much pain.

Went to see Ladder 49 last night, I really enjoyed it but it was rather sad at the end, but good all the same.

I'm rather busy this week, tonight is teaching night, tomorrow is maybe pub quiz or cinema, wed is going for drinks with a former work colleague, thurs is driving lesson, Friday is free and Saturday is going out with mum in law 2B then to my cousins engagement party. So if anyone of my other friends need to see me, then they will have to wait till next week.

Insert Title Here.................................

2005-01-25T09:24:00.000Z

Ok, it's come to the point where i'm struggling on titles of these things, i knew it was gonna happen but didn't think it was gonna be so soon. Oh well i'll let you decide on a Title for this.

Nothing much has happened this weekend, i spoke to a person who i've not spoke to for a while, which was great. Oh my parents met his parents on Sunday we had organised for them to come to lunch, it went as well as could be expected.

Our team at work on Friday won this months incentive achievements for excellent performance, so we are going out tonight for a meal with our winnings, which will be ok, i'm hoping. You see my work collegues are younger than me and my boss is only 21 and a prima donna at that, when we were deciding what to do with the money we had got, we had limited options either a meal or going bowling we couldn't do the bowling thing as last time she went she broke a nail and we wouldn't here the end of it, if it happened again, so we decided on the safe option of a meal.

Will let you know how it went.

Construction

2005-01-20T20:07:00.000Z

Hurrah the wardrobes came on Monday evening and will lots of help from Mother and Father -in-law to be they were assembled and sort of ready to use, still had to put in other shelves and customarys and seeing as we had finished assembly at midnight me and him wanted our sleep, him mostly as he was heading off to London the next day (6 hour drive). I had then to ask kindly for lifts to work, seeing as my Mum in law 2 B loves me she drew the short straw and to make matters worse it had snowed, now I love snow as much as the next person but when I have a full washing line out it doesn't come as a nice surprise and now added work to re wash them.

Tuesday night was hard as he was still in London and I'd been to Mum in laws 2B for tea and was back at home for the night, it is weird on how much extra sense you pick up when there is only you in the house, I managed to get to sleep but was being woken up at the littlest of noise, that wouldn't have bothered me if fiance was at the side of me, then I was on a nice long sleep and said fiance decided to wake me up by sending me a text message at 2:04 am just to tell me that he loves me and to say night night, some of you might think that this is a nice gesture and really sweet but not in the middle of the night when you are trying to sleep. But I do love him so I didn't mind that much.

I didn't think that I would miss him that much but I'm so glad he is back, he is very tired but I still get my little kisses and cuddles, which is very nice.

Furniture Shopping

2005-01-17T13:47:00.000Z

I've been told to update this as it hasn't been updated for a week now, i'm really sorry but i've been rather busy. Question: How is furniture shopping so stressful? well it is for me, first you have to decide on what to buy then trying to sort out if it will fit where you want it. The reason for this is that me and my fiance went up to IKEA on friday evening to get our new wardrobe and bed which match the chest of draws that we has previously bought but having measured said furniture the bed won't fit and it will be touch and go if the wardrobe will fit, but we ordered it anyway, IKEA state that you can have home delivery either the same day or next dayso we thought if we ordered it on Friday we could have it delivered on Saturday, this wasn't the case they should state that it's the next available day delivery so it shouldbe delivered tonight all being well, it better be coz we are taken the old wardrobe to the tip.

I have started to look at wedding things as i'm getting married in September 2006 hopefully on the 16th, but my fiance is getting fussed about how much i'm getting in to organising things, i'd started looking at invitations designs as my soon to be mother in law and I are making them ourselves so i've been researching designs then taking a trip to the craft shop and buying materials, Fiance is getting stressed about this and says i'm starting too early, what he doesn't realise is that it takes time to organise a wedding, and as i'm really indecisive it might take even longer, but i'm sure it will all work out for the best, watch this space!!!

Weekend News

2005-01-10T15:32:00.000Z

Well this weekend it's been my cousins 18th Birthday, she was having a party at a local pub, which was very small for the amount of people that had been invited, plus her brothers band were playing, I just can't believe that she is 18 it only seem like two minutes she was crying in my arms as a baby, now i'm only 24 but she has grown up so much but she is still a bossy madam.

My fiance and I invited ourselves to his mothers on Sunday for lunch which was very nice, but i'm never gonna eat roast beef ever again, i must say that it wasn't her cooking that has made me feel this way, but i haven't really liked it for most of my life, i think coz we used to have it for Sunday lunch at my Grandma's every other Sunday so you get sick of just having one thing, but from now on i'll not be eating Beef.

Back to the Grindstone

2005-01-04T09:21:00.000Z

Well, that's that over for another year. I'll just update you on the past couple of days, New Years Eve we had a party at our little abode, with a few friends and family it went ok, but not something I want to be organising on a regular basis. New Years Day was spent tiding up from the night before and having dinner cooked for us.

It is not wise at all over the festive period or even the few days after New Years to venture out into the shops as you will get crushed. We went to our local IKEA which is a 30 mins drive away and it was mad, it took us about 15 mins just to get a parking spot, plus when we got to the end we found out that non of the stuff we wanted was in stock, a total waste of 2 hours. The only cool thing to happen that day was we went to see Blade Trinity at the cinema, which is a good film but not as good as Blade 1 in my opinion.

So now its the 4th and back at work, having got up to date with all my work before xmas I got into work this morning to a nice empty desk, with little to do but I'm sure that by lunch time my in tray and inbox will be filling up with jobs that need doing.

Yule time comes to an end

2004-12-30T13:37:00.000Z

Well, another xmas over, all that panicking making sure you get the right present and all the food just for 2 days, still i guess it's kind of worth it in the end.

My christmas was really good, i managed to cope without my boyfriend on xmas eve and we had a nice evening together xmas day and daytime boxing day apart from him going out to buy a build your own car and race toy, which he proceeded to build whilst at his mothers with his brother (he got one too), leaving me to sit on the sofa and get bored, oh well, the best and most important thing to happen this christmas is my engagement to my boyfriend, the ring is gorgeous and i'm very much in love with him.

The next thing to happen is new years and we are having our first party at our house with both of our best friends coming, i'm hoping it will go well and i'm planning on getting very drunk.

Will update soon. x

Christmas

2004-12-23T14:54:00.000Z

Well It's that time again where the diet goes out the window and the credit card bill increases dramatically, but it wouldn't be xmas without it.

This year is going to be strange for me coz for the first year I'll have 2 families to spend the festive period with, my own family and my boyfriends family, this is all good but it will still feel strange. Plus the fact that on xmas eve I'll be at my mothers sleeping on my own without my baby at the side of me, it will be the first time I've not woken up at the side of him for 7 months now, but at least it will only be for one night.

Oh well at least all my shopping is done, I've still got a few pressies to wrap though, and I'm baking tonight too Yum!!!!

In the Beginning

2004-12-22T09:26:00.000Z

Seeing as Blogs are slowly taking over the internet and it's now cool to have one, just like an e-mail address a few years ago, now it's the in thing to have a blog so here is mine.

I'm not sure how many people will read this, if any, but at least i've tried and as my work colleague says "God Loves a Tryer"