Thank **** it's Friday

I'm not sure if there's some sort of universe shift going on but a lot of my friends seem to be feeling out of sorts this week, there have been many cases of if it's going to go wrong then you can pretty much guarantee that it's going to. And today I was pushed to my very last limit - that is to the limit that I actually did something about it and instead of allowing myself to be treated like an ever useful doormat I did what I find so easy to do for everyone else.

I stood up for myself.

There were tears, mainly due to sheer frustration and the amount of stress I've had piled on to my already fun packed days.

But I did it.

I stood up for myself, I reiterated that my No actually did mean NO. I told, when asked, exactly how it was and how I felt I had been backed into a very tight corner and I was thankfully met with understanding.

I shared with friends who rallied round me and one arrived at my house to take me out for coffee and a good old fashioned chat.

I came home and threw myself into yet another cupboard purge and then the phone rang. I received an apology from someone who actually didn't have anything to apologise for but it was nice to think that they thought they needed to do it and were prepared to offer it so freely.

The person who has caused all this stress has not phoned. In fact I don't even want them to, I do have an outstanding appointment with them next week and my gut is already twisting thinking I have to see them.

For now it's Friday night, I have a glass of wine prescribed by a friend and I have a huge shopping day to 'look' forward to tomorrow. I don't know if you remember me mentioning it before but my eldest small person is off to Malawi this summer. She leaves in 12 days :( and she will be out of my reach until the end of July. I can't phone her, text her, email her or even know how she's managing unless there is an emergency and then they will phone me. Hmmm yes thinking about it perhaps it was not the best time for someone to try and upset my little world when I have all that going on in my head.
Anyway that's the reason we're going shopping, she has a kit list as long as my arm and it's going to leave my purse very empty BUT I am so proud that my 16 year old is off to do something so worthwhile and have such an amazing experience.

I hope you've all had a better week than me and have something fun to look forward to this weekend.

Pics of bathroom are coming ;)

Anything else?

Why is it everything decides to stop working at the same bloody time?

First the on/off button on the front of the TV has decided to stop working so now I have to fiddle round the back to do the whole on/off thing. Not a huge disaster as I don't watch a whole lot of TV and at least so far (touch wood) the TV is still working.

(Not my actual TV)

Then my tumble dryer has decided, obviously as a punishment for me not using it very often, to stop working halfway through drying the clothes. It teases me by starting then stopping, then starting, then stopping. After I'd given it one of those 'this is how you fix it' kicks it finished drying what I needed it to.

My Freeview box is on its last legs and has been for some time now, sometimes it refuses to change channel, sometimes it likes to jump about so when you press volume you get a different channel, when you press channel the sound mutes. Then there is the weird jumpy flashy thing it likes to do every now and then.

I've been mulling over buying the new Freeview Plus box but do I buy that then have to also buy a new TV which could possibly come with freeview already in it?

And did I mention my poor laptop is slowly dying? :(


Oh and where do I find the money for a new TV/Freeview/Laptop anyway?

Naturally a new laptop would be the priority purchase if I did have the spare money. ;)

Thanks for all your comments about my colour co-ordinated bookshelf. I have to admit I do like it and I also should admit that this is not my only bookshelf so sorting all my books out is far easier to do by colour than alphabetical order. :)
It was good to hear that I'm not the only person to do this kind of thing and I look forward to us all having a tea party in that fancy 'hotel' when we get there. xx

Stress!!!

I thought going on holiday was supposed to be good for you, maybe once I'm actually there I will start to destress but right now I'm about ready to pull my hair out!


The day started with the case of the missing flip flop, wee one could only find one flip flop in her room. After much angst and near tears (probably both mine) she finally found it downstairs. Of course!

We then took the Monster dog up to my pals for his stay with her. He has not been a happy dog for a good week now, shadowing me around the house. He knew something was about to happen, bless him. But he seemed quite happy at my pals when we left.

Coming home I continued with the packing. Can anyone get all their cases to weigh the same? Then I had a panic as my tickets said 15kg but my email confirmation said 20kg. I checked the airline policy, that said 20kg. So finally I put a plea out on facebook and a pal assured me it's 20kg. And the airline policy states you can share the weight out amongst the family. Phew!

Now I am having a wee glass of wine before I go to bed and no doubt mentally recheck everything I've packed in my head over and over and over again.

In my next life I'm being rich and having people who do all this kind of thing for me. LOL.


Right I'll see you all in a couple of weeks and you never know I might have seen a fellow blogger while I'm out there. ;) It just proves it's a small world eh?

Missing you already xxx

I broke myself

Yesterday I woke up full of determination to get a heap of things done.
I swept the floors, did the dishes, hung out a load of washing, did general chores then thought I deserved a nice cup of tea.
So I sat down and had one, then I stood up!


Nothing pinged, crunched or clicked but my back felt a wee bit sore, within half an hour I could no longer stand up straight and felt like one of those little old ladies you see who are all hunched over. It was agony to sit, stand or walk and I was exhausted just trying to do any of them. Fortunately the ex popped round to collect something so I was able to take myself off to my bed, find a semi comfortable position and get some sleep and he fed the small people.

Today after much nagging from eldest small person and a friend I phoned the Dr.
Not for the first time I was manipulated by a man but this manipulation was in a good way and when he'd finished I could actually stand up straight. I'm still sore, the Dr has prescribed me some nice strong pain killers and given me a set of exercises to do to stop my muscles seizing up.
I can never do things by halves can I?

I've got brain itch

You know that sensation when you've got a whole lot of ideas bouncing around in your brain, so many that they're causing a buzzing sensation that in turn causes an itch.

I've too many ideas and not enough energy or time to do it all.
I've been trying to design my next tatt for ages and all of a sudden a totally different tatt has entered my head, so now I'm trying to come up with the design for two new tatts. I have 6 already but they're all fairly small, these two are big uns.
I'm trying to sort out my craft room which still looks like the temple of doom, well it feels like it. If you move something then something else falls on you.
I'm trying to build up the energy and find the time to rip out the fitted wardrobes and carpet in my room but this also involves clearing out my bedroom plus finding the money to pay for new walls and new fitted wardrobes, oh and new flooring.
I'm trying to help big one through her exams. She's got her last one this Friday. Hooray!!!! She's in 4th year and taking her Standard Grades which are basically your GCSE's down in England and Wales.

AND

As you may have read in my previous post 'The You Know Who You Are Letter' you may have guessed that I might be having a bathroom refit. Well I'm hoping you assumed that and didn't just think I had a random bath on my patio. :)
So the work on it started over 3 weeks ago, they guy I've got doing it is a friend of a friend. He's a great guy and very particular about everything being perfect, which is unfortunate in this house as none of the walls are straight in fact not even the window is in straight! Anyway what with the extra work, his various other commitments it's felt like this has been going on forever but the end is in sight. My friend (who's his friend) was going to give me a hand to tile the bathroom to try and save me some money but she turned up one day but was called away. So I've done a wee bit but the very nice man has done the rest. Bills going to be bigger now but the tiles will look a whole lot better around the window than if I'd been left to it. LOL But I'm helping him out where I can as a fetcher and carrier, holder and drinks maker so I've not been able to get much else done.
I will be sharing pictures with you as soon as it's finished. I just wanted to be able to do the whole before and after shots so you can all gasp and coo appropriately. Trust me the before was grim and I've been living with that for nearly 8 years.

So that's why my brain is feeling all itchy but there is no q-tip big enough in the world to reach right in there to scratch it.

Spam off!

It seems it doesn't matter if it's through our letter boxes or straight into our virtual inbox there is always someone trying to charm the money out of our pockets.
I'm just glad that the junk that comes through the house letterbox isn't the same as the online stuff though. Imagine having to explain this lot to the small people!

Inbox today.

* Someone offering a free bus pass - I'm only 40 for godsake!
* Apparently my Amazon order has been paid and I just need to open an attachment and get my tracking number to claim it - umm haven't ordered anything and anything I have ordered in the past has never been done this way. Point to me, attachment which is no doubt a virus or a scam is unopened.
* Some company offering to claim back the thousands I'll be owed from being mis-sold my loan - I don't have a loan!
* A company offering me pills that will enlarge my penis - again oddly enough something I don't have!
* An offer to buy viagra impotence medicine online - not something I was aware I was suffering from but then I don't have a penis!
* Another company offering me not just viagra but Canadian viagra - must be better than the usual stuff eh?
* And finally the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement agency have my compenstation payment - I wasn't aware I'd been involved in anthing I needed compensation for and where exactly did you get my email addy from SCDEA? Oh and just one final hint, when I worked for the police we didn't use MSN accounts as our email addresses. IDIOTS!

Dear.....

Dear You know who you are.

The more you try to drop subtle hints about the 'state' of my garden just remember this. I might be 40 years old but in my head I'm still 19 so everytime you try to make me feel like I should do something you can bet I'll do the complete opposite!

The fact I have a bath and sink full of bits of wall on my patio just now might have given you a big hint that I'm having a new bathroom fitted! That is still ongoing so it will all disappear when the bathroom is finished. My house is not even attached to yours so it is not infringing on you and you can't even see it when your humungous caravan is on your drive.

I unlike some do not have an OCD about my lawn, trust me I have lots of OCDs about other things but how long my grass is or the fact it has bald patches does not bother me, I have too many other things going on just now to worry about.
See those 2 small people that hang around my house? They're my kids, they use the garden to play in. See that big, smelly thing that says woof occasionally? That's my dog and he uses the garden to play in, dig in and c**p in!
Oh and while we're on the subject of my dog could you leave him be and stop encouraging him to stand paws up on the stupid small wall you built in place of my much taller hedge without my permission. I have already asked you not to do this as he is old and is having trouble with his back legs. Get your own dog maybe?

And please stop trying to 'educate' me about the weeds in my garden, I actually like the more natural look for plants and just because some of the plants in my garden don't come out of the Dobbies catalogue doesn't mean they aren't pretty or I can't have them in my garden. It's my garden!

Ummm hello

Did we or did we not just put our clocks forward an hour to British Summer time?
Is it or is it not supposed to be Spring?
Then why did I wake up to snow and howling gales today?
Oh and did I mention no electricity. The lines went down in the early hours of the morning so that meant no heat and more importantly no alarm clocks and we had to have big one down the road for 8.45am to get her on the mini bus as she's off to the Isle of Wight on a Scouting Rally. Fortunately we made it in time, none of us showered or even fed but we did it. :) Their troop is the only Scottish troop going so they'll be flying the flag for Scotland while they're there. There is a full range of activities so no doubt come next week we will be collecting very tired kids off that bus.


I'll be phoning my Mum tomorrow to make sure she's ok as I see from this evenings news the North Wales coast line is taking a battering from the sea my nephew sent me a link of face book and the according the pictures from the local news part of the sea road has been ripped up, houses are flooded but not in my mum's immediate area thankfully.



So frustrating, its not until you're without something that you realise how much you rely on it. Thankfully we got our power on by mid morning so wee one and I snuggled down under a blanket and watched a dvd before her Dad came to whisk her away for the evening. That's probably another reason I'm feeling sorry for myself, one baby on her way to far away land Isle of Wight and wee one off to her Dad's house. Me home alone needing a cuddle.

That's my moan over :)

The Hairy Biker show was brilliant, unfortunately I didn't get chosen to go up on the stage and eat their food but they certainly didn't come across as a miserable pair so I'm assuming my pal got that wrong. ;) I'll do a proper post all about it next time.

Swollen ankles

and no I'm not pregnant. That would be a miracle beyound all reasonable doubt! LOL
I am however just plain exhausted. I work 7-8 hour shifts at the pub so am on my feet constantly for that amount of time, no I don't get breaks or a lunch hour and yes I know that is wrong. But it is what it is and my poor legs and feet are paying the price. Usually by the end of my shift my feet and ankles are throbbing but it's bearable, however this last week my ankles have rebelled and where my ankles were there is now just a straight line from my foot up to my calf :( Ouch, ouch and bloody ouch! So any advice, remedies will be gratefully received. I do try to sit down and put my feet up but invariably with the 2 small people, dog and the never ending housework that's not always something I can do within the first couple of hours of getting home.
And yes the housework


image source www.uglyhousephotos.com

Yep that's what I'll be doing this weekend....housework! No they are not actual images of my house but inside my head it feels like it could be.

But just like the news I'll leave you with a happy note, I'm crafting, knitting actually. Oh yes I am. I saw something that a friend made, thought oooh that's nice...I wonder. She said go, do! So I am and big one has already claimed it even though it's not even half way done. :) Oh and wee one has put in her order for the next one.

Having a non senior moment

I'm not even sure what that title means but of late I seem to be struggling again. Living in a house that seems to be in a constant unfinished state could be part of it, I can't even seem to get on top of simple household tasks..why do dogs constantly seem to moult, why don't bathrooms self-clean? I managed to smash two of my new plates this morning as the stack on the draining board was a tadge precarious to say the least. The state of the kids bedrooms has got to the point that I feel like calling Kim and Aggie in. I have so many unfinished wips and lists of things I want to make. Oh and for some reason today my computer has decided that it doesn't want to download any of my pictures from my camera and I have some great charity shops buys to share. Aaaagh! Ok feel better for that rant and am now going to arm myself with a dustbin bag and a forced grin.

Or maybe I should pin this guy on to their doors.

Hopefully I'll get a night out tonight with my friend and we can have a good giggle, that usually is a good fix. To anyone that has got to the end of this post without their ears bleeding (or especially if your ears are bleeding) have a great weekend. ;)

EDITED 15:38pm
Even more :( now. Night out is cancelled cos my mates 17 year old son has chickenpox.

Well that was Christmas over with

now to get through the New Year fuss. Sorry I know I sound like a miserable moo. Christmas wasn't quite the day it should/could have been but the kids were happy with their presents and dinner was lovely.
Now we're all in the limbo land between Christmas and New Year when no one is quite sure what day it is. This is not going to be a long blog today, hopefully when I come back I can be a bit more cheerful. Off now to blow my snotty nose and drink some hot orange and try muster up some energy to tidy the house.
Ok I'm going, I'm going. I should have titled this Don't Read This. :)