Month 3 Newsletter

Dear Lucy

I had planned to write a month 1 and month 2 newsletter but somehow we got to month 3 without me writing anything so I thought I better get it done before its time for month 4!!!

You are a lovely beautiful little girl, full of burbles and smiles. You have even laughed - although only in Northern Ireland so your daddy hasn't heard you laugh yet. The third time you laughed it was at yellow, not a yellow object, just the colour yellow. You have really taken a liking to yellow and will smile at it everytime you see it, your uncle's t-shirt, the back of your cookery book.

In your three months you have met many different people and you have been on 5 easyjet flights. On your first flight when you were three weeks old there was a boy in the row in front of us who was on his second flight ever aged 17 (his first flight had been 2days earlier) and there you were on your first flight aged three weeks.

I've enjoyed these past three months getting to know you and I'm looking forward to the rest.

Love Mummy

The Problem With Blogs

While chatting to an American women yesterday, I asked where in America she was from. She replied Chicago. I almost said "Oh I have a friend who lives there" before I realised that no I don't have a friend who lives there I just read a blog of someone who lives there.

Maybe its time to interact with real live humans rather than reading blogs.

Dear Coppermoon

All is forgiven, thank you for my Matt and Nat Bag

shoes

I have found the most amazing pair of shoes, so if anyone is feeling generous this Christmas (yes I know its only september) I wear a size 7 and they are by Christian Louboutin!

who'd've thought

Who'd've thought that I could produce something as beautiful as this....

decisions decisions

we are going to a wedding in a months time and i can't decide what to wear, i'm quite looking forward to going to the wedding and getting dressed up for the first time in months now that i fit into normal clothes again, and since i had to miss the last wedding i was invited to because at 38 weeks pregnant i really didn't have anything to wear.

i have a few options as to my attire for the day

1. black and white coast dress - worn to two weddings last year



2. blue and white karen millen dress - worn a few times on holiday in toronto



3. buy something new

lucy will be wearing this lovely monsoon dress,



so if anyone would like to help me make the decision please leave a comment, and no matter what dress i decide on i could also do with some help shopping for either a new dress or new accessories while i'm in northern ireland in august.

The nursery

Here are some pictures of the nursery, just waiting for the furniture and baby to arrive! I surprised Andrew with my both my curtain making and painting skills! Unfortunately there was a small incident when the first pot of paint I opened exploded over the desk, computer and new carpet!!!! typically it was the bright red paint that I opened first.

you would think..

that having finished work four weeks ago I would have plenty of time to blog, and well to be honest I probably do have plenty of time, just a huge lack of inspiration.

For Catherine

I spotted these boyfriend jeans in next and thought they looked quite nice and I knew you were looking for a pair.


whoops forgot to rotate it. Sorry about the awful picture I had to take a photo of the next directory.

hmmm ideas needed

i need some ideas for how to fill the next few weeks before the bump turns into a real baby

so far my plans include

• fly to northern ireland
• get hair done
• see victoria square
• fly back to newcastle
• parentcraft classes
• seth lakeman concert
• a free concert at the sage

but that only takes me up to the end of may - I still have june to fill so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

fashion???

While in Covent Garden on Monday I wandered into Oasis and spotted this dress (I was so horrified I had to take a picture)

Is this or is this not the summer dress of Carrick Model Primary School?

Back again

I was horrified to realise how long it had been since I last blogged so here I am back again.

While I was in London I was a bit bored in my hotel room so I took some bump pictures. here I am at 28 weeks and 2 days.

introducing.......

Bump!!

It's cold

half way there

I have now passed the 20 week mark of my pregnancy which means there is less than 20 weeks till my birthday (oops I mean due date). I had my second scan and the baby is fine!! yay!

We haven't bought much for the baby yet
just some flipper slippers


and mum bought this lovely sign for the nursery door

confusing

on monday i woke to hear this report on the radio one news, well infact i just heard coffee increases miscarriage risk and pregnant women should not have coffee. my thought was typical!!! i've just started drinking coffee again. then when i got to work and read the report it was only in the first 12 weeks and i more or less abstained in the first 12 weeks (although not by choice).

yesterday i read this report in the mail and it all became very confusing

monday i'm told not to drink coffee and on tuesday i'm told to drink more coffee!!!!!!

and the coffee smells good!!!

Finally!!!!

after two months of feeling sick at even the thought of drinking a starbucks, i can drink coffee again. and i'm enjoying it. I am trying hard not to get addicted like before, but it smells and tastes good

i have to say during November and December I was shocked at how few people commented on or queried my sudden dislike ofstarbucks and how when they did they were satisfied with the excuse of "i had so many i have sickened myself of them" when really it was one of my food aversions brought on by early pregnancy.

Merry Christmas

improvements in technology - or maybe not

i can remember being told that in victorian times the toilets on trains were just holes that went straight down onto the tracks and you weren't allowed to use the toilet while at a station. well we are over 100 years since the end of victorian times and i had assumed that technology would have improved.

but on wednesday after i had arrived in king's cross and was walking down the platform to head for the tube i noticed a sign saying "please do not flush the train toilets when at a platform as they flush onto the tracks" and i was a bit shocked. i had thought that nowadays when you flushed a train toilet it would be stored somewhere and then discharged somewhere and taken to a sewage plant - but no it just goes onto the tracks!!!!

not a grinch

I was planning a grinch like post but after some others beat me to it I decided that I would not be a grinch so


Yay its almost Christmas and the people behind us have already got their Christmas lights up!!!

yay!!!!

this time last year!

this time last year...
i was full of excitement

this time last year...
i was boarding a plane in newcastle

this time last year...
i was ushing through heathrow

this time last year...
i was flying to new york

this time last year...
i was loving manhatten

this time last year...
i was with a good friend

this time last year...
i was surprised at the warmth

this time last year...
i was missing andrew

this time last year...
i was standing in line

this time last year...
i was drenched by the rain

this time last year...
i was enjoying the music

a sad sad day!

today i had to say goodbye to my fiesta, and i'm quite surprised at how sad i was to leave it behind. now its not like i lovingly cared for, and washed it every week - to be honest i only washed it four times in the two years that i owned it.

we decided a few months ago to get rid of one car as we weren't using the two cars as much as we used to and it was probably my suggestion to get rid of the car because it will save us quite a bit each month not filling it with petrol, the monthly payments and insurance - but i was still sad to say goodbye to it. i felt like i was abandoning it up in north tyneside.

at the same time as abandoning my car i got to experience a car auction - lots of spides (and a few dodgy looking second hand car salesmen) looking at cars as they revved the engines. i think i was probably the best dressed person there and despite me feeling extremely out of place wandering through a car auction no-one else seemed to notice me - as i waslked in i was expecting everyone to turn and stare (i really didn't fit in - for three reasons 1 - i'm not a spide, 2- i'm not a dodgy second hand car sales man and 3- i was female) but strangely it didn't happen they were all too engrossed in the cars.

building anfield

last week was andrew's birthday, and he requested an anfield birthday cake. i had already decided to bake him a football pitch cake so this confirmed that i had decided on the right cake. here is the result of the cake - complete with a liverpool football team!!!

you'll all be glad to know

I found a coat!!!! and it's purple!!!!

(this was the best picture despite having a bit of the mantlepiece in the corner)

thankyou esther but... (#2)

I don't like the collar

thankyou esther but....

it has a belt and very shiny buttons

long cold winter

i think it is going to be a long cold winter.....

i spent this afternoon trawling round the shops in newcastle looking for a winter coat and couldn't find one...

its mid october and i am still only wearing a fleece or jumper (plus a scarf) when i go out i'm not sure how much longer i'll last

any suggestions of nice coats would be greatly appreciated - especially in red!

I just thought you might like to know

To the girl in the grey t-shirt we saw on Old Elvet on Saturday night, I thought I should tell you (because your so-called friends didn't) that YOU FORGOT YOUR JEANS!!!

cup-a-cake

well done catherine, you are correct!!!! it is a cup-a-cake for holding individual cupcakes without wrecking the frosting!!! how fab is that!!!! The only small problem is my cupcakes appear to be slightly larger than the cupcakes it is designed to hold.

Forgotten

the title of this post isn't actually in relation to the fact that i have not blogged in over a month!

in toronto in july I got very excited when i found this small blue plastic piece of kitchen equipment. i insisted that it was an essential bit of kitchen kit! You may ask what it is (which andrew did when i found it in williams and sonoma) but i think it might be more fun to let you guess.

That Friday Feeling

today really felt like a friday


but it's not


its only thursday so i still have to go in to work tomorrow

Running achievements!!!

I know others who read this blog are training for a half marathon and can run far further than me but I'm proud of myself for these two running achievements.

1. On Sunday I ran for 40mins and my distance was 4.5miles. (At 29mins 08secs my endorphins kicked in and I actually began to enjoy myself.)

2. The Sunday before I went for a short run and managed my best times for a mile
my first mile was in 8min!!!!!!!
my average speed per mile was 81/2mins!!!!!

I'm going running tomorrow after work (unless its a really hot day and then I'll leave it till Friday morning) so lets see what I manage then.

No I'm not Scottish / Welsh / Canadian / American - I'm NORTHERN IRISH

Today I someone said to me

"Its obvious you're Scottish, but which area are you from?"

A few weeks ago when a friend arrived at the house the kids down the road said to him

"we don't know who lives there, but they're Welsh!"

A while ago when I had to show my passport as proof of id in my building society the cashier said

"Its a Canadian passport then?"

And years back when on my gap year I was asked

"you're not from these shores?"

I replied no (because well I'm not from England so technically not the shores in the country we were in at the time) and the next question was

"so what state are you from?"

Amadeus

Merlin

can't even escape it in canada

my northern irish roots were obviously visible when i booked my holiday - i would be abroad over the 12th july even though i don't live in northern ireland anymore. imagine the shock we had in toronto when walking through downtown on saturday 14th july to discover this

your not exactly a looker yourself? are you?

this conversation (although slightly one sided to be called a conversation maybe more of a monologue) overheard in a toronto restaurant last week made me giggle.

sitting at the table next to us were two old men, i'd be tempted to call them elderly but maybe not quite that old. anyway one of them - who looked like he was trying to model himself on peter stringfellow was talking about this fabulous old lady who had lots of plastic surgery and looked beautiful but had a fat an ugly daughter. in his opinion this fabulous old lady should disown the daughter for being fat and ugly!!!!!! i was sitting eating my meal wondering if he had looked in the mirror recently

I'm Back

Well I think the title says it all

finally

at long last

after 5 perfomances

and reading the online cliff notes

i understand the tempest!!!

after the 4th performance that i sat through confused i googled it to find out what was really going on

now i get it and have enjoyed 2 more performances

only 2 performances to go before toronto!!!!!

Spice Girls

Apparently this was not meant to be an insult

While sitting with two of my female friends, Ben came over and said "this isn't meant to be an insult but.... you three and C remind me of the Spice Girls."

This lead to him being asked why? how was it not an insult? and did he want to borrow a shovel?

The European Monsoon, Meese and Snowflakes

apparently this weird wet weather we are having is not unusual and happen every june and is known as the european monsoon. this monsoon brought a herd of meese to my house today.

i didn't have to work for my seventh day in a row because of the flooding and decided to bake meese and snowflakes - and they are very tasty

Danger Night....

at the hopins

when i was invited to go to DANGER NIGHT at the hopins i had absolutely no idea what claire was talking about - after a few moments of claire repeating the phrase DANGER NIGHT at the hopins and me looking back at her blankly she explained its the fair in exhibition park. and the reason for it being DANGER NIGHT is because it was the first night - so everything might fall apart.

So we went with some other friends as well and had good fun, but we all felt a bit out of place - we were all too old, had no toddlers with us and forgot to wear our velour tracksuits!

Midsummer's Night

it was nice to be driving home from work at 9.50pm in daylight. i had just been watching an outdoor, promenading performance of a midsummer night's dream on midsummer's night.

homesickness

its rare hat i feel homesick but today i got it bad. i was close to tears driving home from work missing the friends i had so much fun with last weekend and i probably won't see for quite some time, busy lives and a few hundred miles get in the way.

I'm not lost - just undiscovered

On the way home from work in the car today the song (that I don't know the title of or the artiste) with the line "I'm not lost! Just undiscovered!" was playing on the radio. Every time I hear it it reminds me of a youth fellowship summer outing years ago....

We were all walking from Whitehead to Blackhead lighthouse. Catherine and I decided to take a short cut / alternative route to the lighthouse. After sitting at the lighthouse for quite some time the rest of the group never appeared so we headed back to Whitehead. On arrival at the carpark everyone laughed at us because we got lost - but Catherine and I kept insisting "we weren't lost! just they didn't know where we were! we knew exactly where we were.

Scary - Moi???

I have never considered myself as a particularly scary person, but on Saturday night it transpired that I once was. Even now looking back I don't think I was any more scary or angry that any other teenager. But some people think I was.

On Saturday night while out for dinner with Mr and Mrs C I was being accused of having broken Mrs C's bath 8 years ago (back when Mrs C was Miss T). I have no memory of this event but according to them they (and another friend) had decided it would be funny to put me fully clothed in the bath and when Mr C put his foot on my head to push me into the bath I lost it!!!

My response to this was "well if that is what happened I'm not surprised I lost it"

and in allegedly losing it I allegedly broke the side of the bath.

I still have no memory of this incident (obviously too traumatic for my brain to cope with)

Then Mrs C said "you've got to admit you were kinda scary back then when you lost your temper"!!!!

I won

Yay

I've managed to blog before Catherine and Esther today!!!!

We have to blog everyday from today till next Sunday and I have blogged first today!!!!

The pain of vanitiy

On Friday night we were out at a ball and I wore my wedding shoes (well wedding strappy sandals) and they KILLED my feet.

I have worn these shoes four times in total
#1 wedding day - I wore them all day not a problem
#2 friend's hen night - not really any problems
#3 andrew's work ball - I fell down the stairs in them because I couldn't walk in them
#4 work ball on friday night - I could hardly walk, particularly when it came to walking across the gravel carpark to get to my car (oh I was glad I had brought my uggs to drive in!!!!!

I don't think I'll be wearing them again

Metamorphosis

our back yard is slowly turning into a garden, we now have grass and the beginning of a rockery.

Bored

Match of the day is on and I'm bored!!!

Amadeus

The latest addition to our family was born today, although he won't come to live with us until the end of July. His name is Amadeus and he is a black and white Norwegian Forest Cat. He was only 12hrs old when we met him today.

Introducing

Our new kitten, he doesn't have a name yet, suggestions welcomed.

The last kiss

No-one told me it wasn't a romantic comedy....

Nutmeg

Nutmeg died on Good Friday. The house is now very quiet without her.

That's not how we practised!

Into riff x 2
Verse
Chorus
Verse
Chorus
Bridge
Bridge split - men sing bridge, women sing chorus
Bridge split no instruments

well that was how it was meant to go

however

Intro riff x 1
verse
chorus
verse
chorus
bridge
bridge split - men sing bridge women sing chorus
bridge - piano solo (singers standing in mute silence)

As I sat down I muttered to the trumpeter "that wasn't how we practised"

Juicy Moosey

Guess where we were #2

Here are the photos!

Where are we?

Guess where we were on Thursday - here are the photos

language barrier

When I went away for my course for a few weeks, I was exhaust when I arrived, then recovered during he week, but was exhausted again by the end of it.

On the first night I was sitting in the lounge with all the others on the course and two of them were chatting about the desserts they had eaten at dinner time, however I was struggling to understand the conversation, and I only knew they were talking about desserts because I heard the words "lemon sponge" but apart from that I couldn't understand any other words.

I put it down to tiredness

A few days later I discovered they were both from north Wales and Welsh was their first language.

I was relieved to realise that I wasn't losing the ability to understand English.

woo hoo I'm back!

Don't worry!! I am still alive

a week without internet access has left me unable to blog or post photos on Flickr

I returned yesterday to over 200 emails that I didn't read from the durham freecycle site, they still send me emails even though I tried to unsubscribe weeks ago. after I deleted them all I tried to unsubscribe again, and I haven't checked my emails since to see if it worked this time.

I got a catalogue through the post during the week. I was a bit disappointed with the clothes in it, but one page particularly amused me...

I couldn't understand why they had put this dress in the catalogue, or why the buyer for the company still has a job.

The model wearing the dress looks like she's wearing a geometric print sack - so what on earth would any normal woman look like in it. here's the link

St Patricks Day

Its St Patrick's Day today, not that you could have missed it living here in England.

Strangely enough the patron saint of Ireland gets more of a celebration here than their own saint - George (just in case you didn't know who the patron saint of England was) gets celebrated.

I walked passed O'Neils Irish Bar today at about 3.30 - there was a queue outside! with the bouncers saying they were full.

In Newcastle there was a St Patricks party going on at monument

The english seem to be becoming very american with their celebration of St Patricks Day, and unless Northern Ireland has changed since I last lived their I bet lots of English people would be disappointed at the lack of celebrations going on there.

tired tired tired

I've spent most of this week in a little daze, I've been so busy its left meexhausted.

On Wednesday I managed to miss my junction on the motorway on my way to work, i've been driving the same route to work for the past four months!!! but yet I miss the junction.

Well its now the weekend and I've been enjoying being less busy!

Low Speed Police Chase

a stolen jcb digger with a top speed of 20mph led 5 police cars and a helicopter in a 13mile chase. it stopped when it reached a dead end in the centre of darlington

I think the police might have been bored on the sunday afternoon and thats why the five cars and one helicopter were needed.

Hardy north east girl - not quite yet

Yesterday while I was walking into town for my lunch break I had a slightly scary realisation that I was turning into a hardy north east girl!

Why?

Because I had left the office without my coat!!!

But when I was walking towards cafe nero I passed a girl who was just wearing jeans and a vest - I was wearing trousers, shirt and fleece jumper.

So I breathed a sigh of relief that I'm not yet a hardy north east girl

Lent

Lent is officially over!!

Well to me it is!

I decided that it was pointless giving up chocolate, I wasn't suffering, and well I was a bit bored of trying to find other things to snack on. It did take me almost a day to decide to start eating chocolate again, I wasn't just succumbing to a craving, I contemplated it for a long time.

Up to date

My flickr is now up to date with all my photos of the day!!!

Finally!

I've finally figured out how to link my flickr photos to my blog yay!!!

Now you can check my photo a day, although I still have to upload quite a few.

Kirstin standing holding a 4ft pole

Teenage boy sleazely "my stick's longer than that!"

Kirstin, looking bored and rolling eyes, "I seriously doubt that."

interesting

I think thats the best way to describe the past few days

Bit Too Quiet

I've been a bit too quiet on here recently, I haven't really had anything interesting to write about.... and then Thursday happened.....

At work on thursday afternoon I had been out planting trees (52 to be precise) and I went back to the office and immediately smelt smoke!!!! No-one else was in the building (but well there are only 5 of us based there anyway) and started searching for the fire. I couldn't find it so I went outside, found my boss and informed him. He also could smell smoke (it wasn't me going mad or anything). I wen outside to check the back yard and realised the smoke was coming through an air vent. Ran round to the public toilets and discovered a burning toilet roll!!!!!!! I then had to figure out how to put it out, so ended up flinging water across the toilets from the sink to the loo-roll until the fire was out.

I have also now updated my photos on flickr - I did take them each day I just didn't get round to uploading them

sale shopping

I decided today I am really bad at sale shopping

I walked into Next in the Metro Centre and started looking at some nice clothes, and realised I had walked straight through the sale section and was looking at the clothes that were the new season stock.

Oh well

a photo a day!

I've decided to try a take at least one photo every day for the rest of the year.

I'm going to put them all up on flickr and then I have to figure out how to link flickr to here

well here's my first photo

To Andrew

Happy 2nd Anniversary

with love and hugs

Kirstinxxxxx

Saturday 9th December - Christmas Dinner

6.20 -turkey in over

6.35 - potatoes on hob

7.05 - potatoes in oven

8.00 - pudding on hob
- soup on hob

8.15 - stuffing in oven
- sausages in oven
- potatoes on hob

8.20 - carrots and cauliflower in steamer

8.25 - brocolli in steaner

8.30 - serve soup

8.35 - turkey out

8.40 - peas on hob

8.45 - serve turkey

9.30 - pudding

well apart from forgetting to turn on the steamer and forgetting to put the stuffing in the oven, a sucessful Christmas dinner. Okay so it was a few weeks early but it was nice. And the first time I've cooked for 9!

I think I can wear my domestic goddess apron with pride.

I purposely try not to write about work but.....

I love my new job!

A little worrying

It gets a little worrying when starbucks staff recognise you on the metro and have a conversation with you.

I'm back!

So I'm back from New York and despite having two days of sitting in the house doing not much before going to Glasgow I couldn't really think ok anything to write. The in the small hours of Friday morning, while trying to fall asleep I thought of a wonderfully eloquent piece to blog about New York and thought it all out and decided to blog it on Friday morning before going to Glasgow.

Today while driving home from Glasgow I remembered that I had planned to blog the wonderfully eloquent piece on Friday morning, but can not remember anything about it other than

1. It was wonderfully eloquent (as I have already said a few times)
2. It was about New York.

So that will teach me to stay in bed rather than getting up and blogging the moment inspiration hits me!

my leaving lunch

My leaving lunch was planned for Friday

Unfortunately I was unable to go to work on Friday because I was given eye drops to dilate my pupils and was unable to drive for the rest of the day.

So all my lovely colleagues went out for my leaving lunch - without me!!!

Found it!!!!

Good news

It was on the window sill in the study

Along with the letters for the hospital that I needed on Tuesday and Friday last week but couldn't find! and my degree certificate.

I can go to New York on Friday after all.

Its not in.....

The master bedroom

The intrays on the desk in the study

The folder with important things like Andrew's passport and my out of date passport

The spare bedroom

My boxes of junk that I keep meaning to sort out containing things like payslips

The living room

The dining room

The kitchen

On top of the hifi in the study among Andrew's newspaper cuttings

Well Catherine....... It looks like you might be going to New York alone.......

if I can't find my passport!!!!

Leaving Work

The silly people in my office decided to organise my leaving do without intially consulting me.

Luckily yesterday someone decided to check that I was free on the date that they had all pencilled in - I'm not,I reminded them that I would be flying to New York the day before.

Its a good job they didn't decide to have it as a surprise party, I wouldn't have been there.

Silly people.

2 Weeks to go

Would it be sad to start my travel diary now?

Dear Kitchens Direct

STOP CALLING ME!!!!!

I don't know where you got my number

STOP CALLING ME!!!!

Like a scene from the Godfather

Last week at work I was filling a bucket with soil from my boxes of soil sitting outside the building. I was scooping the soil into my buckets when I spotted some whiskers!!!!!! Cue Kirstin Panic!! Only a momentary panic though, I emptied out my soil and went inside to wash my hands and then found someone to dispose of the animal with whiskers. He moved around the soil and found a freshly killed rabbits head!!!!

It felt like I was in the Godfather (Ok so the rabbit head wasn't in my bed and it wasn't my prized race-rabbit but if still freaked me a little)

I have been assured that it shouldn't been seen as a threat but it was probably a fox storing food.

Introducing.....

Tarquin

He has requested that the writing of the post is orange to match his fur.

Tarquin is our new pet tiger! We bought him in Durham on Saturday and thought he could be a guard tiger, but so far has been cowering upstairs while we've been out.

willing the clock to move

Oh today has dragged so much, the clock seems to be slowing down - but less than 20mins to go till home time.

Now that I'm in my last month here I'm back to the problem I had when I didn't know if my contract was being extended - not enough work to do - so I'm back to doing everything slowly.

But its almost time to go home - 15 mins

Shoe shopping

At the weekend I was shoe shopping, well to be more correct winter boot shopping.

But I think my my legs have shrunk since I last tried to buy knee high boots.

I tried on this pair (top row second from left - directly below the word boots) but my legs were about 2inches too short, and I noticed when they were on the shelf that the size seven was about 2inches longer in the leg than the size 5 next to it. Since when has having size 7 feet meant you are tall.

Then I tried on a nice pair of fly boots but they had an extremely high heel. They were quite tight around the front of my foot but as I walked my heels were too loose, and they were too high at my knee.

Then I tried on a few more pairs all of which came too high to my knee - have my legs shrunk or something.

I am now considering this pair, I saw them in dune but didn't try them on.

How come for years I have never had a problem finding shoes and suddenly none fit. I think a trip to the metro centre may be needed.

Kirstin's Quest For Curls!

Hmmm maybe curls isn't quite the right word, but it sounds better than nice loose waves for the alliteration in the title, although I maybe should have written it Kirstin's Kwest for Kurls.

Anyway, as some of you know - those with curly hair - Catherine, Steph and Esther - I have been quizzing you on how to make my hair work in its natural waves - rather than straightning th life out of it with my GHDs. My main reason for this is myGHDs won't work properly in New York.

The answers I have received have been to put on product on my hair and scrunch dry/diffuse it. So today for the first time I tried and well the result is interesting.

I used Frizz Ease Dream Curls - Curl perfector which according to the bottle Transforms wilted waves & curls into sexy swerves, curves & spirals.

Well I wouldn't say my hair had been transformed into swerves curves or spirals. At most it has managed to for loose waves but the shorter layers didn't really do anything so I had to tie them back into a ponytail.

Any suggestions for how to manage my waves would be greatly appreciated.

Breaking news

Yay!!!

After months (or is it years) of being miserable in my job, and five failed job interviews I have been offered a new job as the Education and Events Officer in Darlington.

Today I had to break the news to Groundwork that despite their "cough" extremenly "cough" generous "cough cough" payrise and extension of my contract for another year, I would be leaving for a well paid, permanent job.

Then after breaking the news they started discussing where and when they should advertise my job to find my replacement - hello I haven't even handed in my notice yet!

Starbucks

Starbucks in Glasgow made the mistake of selling me out of date sandwiches. So I sent a polite email to Starbucks on Monday afternoon informing them of their mistake.

I received a reply on Tuesday morning asking which store had made such a silly mistake and that they would inform the store that they needed to be more careful. And that they would like to send me some vouchers as an apology.

So yesterday I arrived home from work to discover £10 of Starbucks vouchers had arrived in the post!!!

Hmm very tempted to go to Team Valley tonight for a mocha!
(well its been almost 48hrs since I last visited Starbucks)

A big special thanks to ........

REBECCA

Thankyou so much for managing to sort out my flights home from New York, without having to make me pay 100pounds (yes my pound sign is still on holiday)

I now don't have to dash from Heathrow to Gatwick in the 3 hours between landing and departure. Although really it would only be 2 hours since I have to check in 1hour before departure.

Luckily for me (and Catherine) Rebecca (and whoever Catherine spoke to at the STA call centre) phoned American Airlines and got us onto the BA flight from Heathrow because the flight we were actually booked on didn't seem to exist.

Thanks Rebecca!!!!!!

Fish

we got goldfish!

they are called sherbet and barley

sherbet is a lemon goldfish

and barley is an orange goldfish

A moment of clarity

I like it when things suddenly become clear and begin to make sense.

I had a moment like that last night when watching a tv program.

At the start of the program a song was playing about little boxes made of ticky-tacky. And suddenly everything became clear.

Years earlier the youth pastor of my church, Jonie, would talk about little boxes made of ticky-tacky and all look the same. I always thought it was just an obscure youth pastor reference. I never realised it actually came from a song.

Here's the song

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.

And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And its only now that the point Jonie was making (or at least the point I think he was making) becomes clear.

You have to laugh

Running

As some of you know I started running a few weeks ago, well actually eight weeks ago, it started off with running 2mins and then walking 4mins, which to be honest I struggled with but kept going.

I'm now up to running 10mins and walking 2mins! I'm quite impressed by this, but last night Andrew decided to come with me and he managed it!

Its not fair, it has taken me 8 weeks to get up to running for 10mins without collapsing and Andrew can do it the first time he goes running

hmph

Silly computer

My work computer has decided to be very silly, it has lost its pound sign!!! How does a computer manage to loose a pound sign. Instead of a pound I have a #

It has also decided to swap @ and " which has caused a number of problems in sending emails

A few other symbols have swapped too

But the pound sign has vanished

Thursday Morning Fun

After only four hours sleep we had fun negotiating Newcastle Airport on Thursday morning, although it reaqlly wasn't the chaos that the Newcastle Chronicle was reporting.

While standing in the check-in queue we were told by an announcement that with immediate effect no passengers were allowed to carry hand luggage. Ok for the 40minutes from Newcastle to Belfast thats not a huge problem and we quickly stuffed our things into the suitcase.

Then we went to Starbucks and got a mocha and a bottle of water and proceeded to the huge queue to get airside.

I managed to drink my entire drink in the queue it was so long!!!

While standing in the long queue people from further back started walking forwards saying loudly "did they just call the stansted flight?" so everyone for the stansted flight started following them with us standing thinking "we're at the front of the queue and we didn't hear them calling the stansted flight so how on earth did you hear them call the stansted flight" but I'll know or future use that thats a good way of queue jumping!

Got to security and was told that I had to leave behind my SEALED bottle of water that I had bought in the airport I even had a receipt!!! and the reason I wasn't allowed it - well the security man wasn't allowed to tell me!!!! Now remember it was about 6am and no-one had any clue about what was going on because we hadn't seen the news! I personally didn't think it was an acceptable answer but didn't think I'd win the arguement.

Then at the scanning machine thing the women wanted to send us out of security because of Andrew's car key, but after negotiation she let us take the battery out and it was no longer electrical.

However, I do think the airport security made a big oversight in forgetting that watches are electrical!!!! I didn't see them taking anyones watches. And I'm sure watches have been used in the past to detonate bombs, but they allowed the watches on board but not newspapers. I haven't figured out what threat newspapers pose.

But after my previous post about looking forward to New York I'm still looking forward to New York just not the journey because 5 or 6 hours with out a Ipod or a book will be awful.

93!

Its 93 sleeps till I fly to New York, its ages away but I can't stop thinking about it, I've started writing a list of the shops I definately want to visit, and trying to think what Christmas presents I can buy everyone.

It feels like I'm wishing my life away but thinking about New York is one of the few things keeping me going at work each day as the boredom of the office and the temptation to write my resignation letter grows.

Superman Returns

I went to see superman returns and really the only good things about the film were Lois Lane's nice shoes, dress and coat!!!

Sorry Catherine but I really didn't like the film