Holiday

'Tis okay, fellow bloggers, I have not fallen from the face of the earth and you can all rest easy in your beds tonight! I have, in fact, spent the last week in glorious Devon - here, to be precise. A whole seven days in a field, surrounded by a load of total strangers all sharing a common interest in sleeping under canvas and performing ablutions in a portakabin.... No TV, no t'internet, no bunnies (!) and no privacy! And I have to admit, after all the moaning and complaining that I wasn't looking forward to it, I loved every minute of it - well, except for last night, when D, and one bloke from each of our neighbouring tents decided to hold a snoring contest... D found me in the wee hours dozing in the car with the gear stick wedged somewhere it shouldn't have been.

I won't bore you with the details of what we've been up to, suffice to say that we had a fantastic time and a real 'family' holiday - a few trips out and lots of time spent on the beach. It was lovely swimming in the sea on such hot days. We couldn't have asked for better weather. The pic at the top is Dawlish beach in the morning as the tide was on its way out.

This is one of the boys in the sea, playing with the rubber ring D bought. "Best £2.99 I've ever spent" he kept repeating to me. Well, at least they had fun. The sea looks deceptively calm in this pic - most of the time there were some waves and we all took a tumble in the surf at some point!

We hardly saw J as he spent all his time on the campsite playing with all the other (hundreds) of kids. Actually, it was lovely to see him with other children, as he's an only child and we only ever really see him interact with adults. I found out that he's actually quite bossy and was definitely the ring-leader, which quite surprised me. We always knew where he was even if he was out of site as he seems to have inherited his mother's er, how can I put this, oh, okay, big gob!

So, today we returned, secretly pleased that the weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse but very sad that our little holiday has come to an end. I hate coming back from Devon as D gets really down. We both would really like to live down there someday and each time we go on holiday it strengthens our resolve, but we know we are stuck here for the time being. Hey-ho, back to 'real life' I guess... Still, I get to see my babies again tomorrow, when I go to retrieve them from Louise who has very kindly been looking after them for me. I dread to think of the havoc they have wreaked! Apparently they escaped their cage in her living room one night and jumped all over her poor, unsuspecting son who was asleep on the sofa....

I have managed to catch up on all the blogs, I think, but boy, you lot can natter! I will get round to posting comments when I can, but I am bogged down the next couple of weeks with a CJ, a memory book and a wedding order to complete - eeeek!!! I'll need another holiday afterwards!

To finish, here is an arty-farty shot I took of my beloved 'Athens' Crocs, which have not been off my feet all holiday and were great to wear in the shower (after all, you never know who was in there before you(!)). In the past week I have seen that the media has finally jumped on the Crocs bandwagon - I read about them in The Sun, Heat and Now magazines. Just remember kids, it was Lythan wot saw 'em first, then me, then the rest of the world !!

The Heat Is On

Phew! Bloody hell it's hot! I am so crap in the heat - unless I'm lying in some shade, next to a gorgeous azure swimming pool that I can just dip in whenever I feel the need.... I so need to take the buns out for a run, but it's even too warm in the evening as our garden gets the sun all day. I have put out a bottle of frozen water for them to lie against, but they're just eying it suspiciously and don't really know what to do with it...

I've just come back from the doctor's. Not been for quite a while and keep forgetting that I haven't yet changed my name since getting married and that I still live with my parents *oops!* For about two years now, I've had a clicky jaw. I first noticed it when I was eating anything particularly chewy and occasionally it would lock and I'd have to punch myself to get it back to normal (how weird did that look?!). Anyhoo, it's been getting worse and worse and over the last couple of months it's become unbearable - clicking all of the time, whether I'm talking, eating or just breathing. It locks regularly and this is very embarrassing if I'm eating in front of others and my mouth only opens slightly, thwarting the chances of that big forkful from entering! And the noise the clicking makes is just horrendous! I thought it was just loud as it was next to my ear, but apparently everyone else can hear it too.

So, I've done a bit of research and I reckon it could be temporomandibular joint disorder. Yeah, try saying that if you have it! I wondered if there was anything the doctor could do, or whether I would need to see a dentist - I don't have one, as they are too expensive, but that's a whole other story! I tell her what's wrong, she puts her hands either side of my jaw and I demonstrate... Her eyes nearly pop out and she made a sort of "eeeuuurrch!" noise. She said it's the worst case she's seen (and heard!) and that I should be referred to the maxillofacial people at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham, if I would like? Er, yes please! "They may want to operate," she says. "I can't live with this anymore," I reply.

So, there will be a referral letter winging it's way to my parents' house sometime soon, I hope. Glad I went now... I think!

Yes

Been tagged by Jane, so here you go! (Do you realise the problems I have trying to find titles for these posts? Will soon be resorting to songs from all decades and films, so please don't be disappointed in me Lythan!)

Gone on a blind date -Yes
Skipped school -No
Seen someone die -No
Snuck out of your parent's house -No
Been in love- Yes
Been dumped - Yes
Been laid off/fired (Made Redundant!!) -Yes
Quit your job Yes
Been in a fist fight?- Not a proper one!
Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back -Yes
Been arrested -No
Been to Canada -Yes
Been to Mexico -No
Been on the opposite side of the world -Almost
Been to Paris - Yes
Cried yourself to sleep -Yes
Played cops and robbers -Yes
Recently coloured with crayons -Most days
Sang karaoke -Yes
Paid for a meal with only coins - Yes
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't -Yes
Made prank phone calls -Yes
Caught a snowflake on your tongue -Yes
Danced like nobody was watching - No
Been kissed under the mistletoe -Yes
Watched the sun rise with someone you care about -Yes
Blown bubbles -Last week
Crashed a party -Yes
Gone roller-skating-Yes
Ice-skating -Yes
Crashed a car -Yes
Swam in the ocean -Yes
Felt like dying -Yes :(
Made a bonfire on the beach - No
Drank so much you threw up -Once - I don't do vomit - and it wasn't the amount, it was the drink!
Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose -Yes
Knitted ? -Yes
Skinny dipped ? -No

Wow, that's a lot of 'yes's'! Does that make me quite adventurous, or did I have a silly youth?

Four In The Morning

Four things about ...Kel

A ) Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Money collector for a charity magazine
2. Checkout girl at Sainsbury's
3. Trolley Dolly for well-known, much hated train company
4. Recruitment Consultant (well, for 5 weeks, before I realised it 'wasn't for me')

B ) Four movies you would watch over and over:

1. Stand By Me
2. Pretty Woman
3 Dirty Dancing
4 Grease

C ) Four places you have lived:

1. Rosslyn Road
2. Turchill Drive
3. Oaklands Croft
4. Kingston Court (Okay, so I have always lived in the same town - I'm not adventurous, okay?!)

D ) Four TV shows you love to watch:

1. CSI (Vegas)
2. Prison Break
3. Lost
4. Any of those 'Rebus' 'Trial and Retribution', 'Wire in the Blood' type shows

E ) Places I have been on holiday:

1. Hawaii
2. Vancouver
3. Portugal
4. Cyprus

F ) Four websites you visit daily:

1. Carolyn's
2. Rabbits United
3. My blog (yep, the one you're reading) so that I can use my links to read others'
4. QVC

G ) Four of my favourite foods:

1. Italian - mmmm, pasta!!
2. Mom's roast dinner
3. Fish and chips
4. Sea bass, preferably from my fave restaurant - O Alambique in Silves, Portugal

H ) Four places I would rather be right now:

1. The Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki for dinner, followed by a walk along Waikiki Beach...
2. ...failing that, O Alambique in Portugal to eat my sea bass (see above!)
3. Wherever my husband is, seeing as he's not here :(
4. In Gerry and Dolph's swimming pool here - the second bestest ever holiday after my honeymoon!

Okay, now it's your turn! I'd love to know more about you, especially if you are an anonymous reader... please answer the questions in your own blog and leave a comment to let me know x

Who's That Girl?

... With the bloke's hair cut? Oh. My. God. What the heck have I done? So, here's how it happened...

I have a mobile hairdresser come to my house. She's been cutting my family's hair for years and years and is lovely and does a cracking trim. However, I should, by now, have learnt my lesson when it comes to a restyle and go to a salon, but the trouble is that she is so very reasonably priced and convenient. Every so often, she gets it just right and I'm dead chuffed with the result, but, on more than one occasion, I have sworn that it's the last time and I will have to start asking for recommendations for a new stylist.

Now, I'm not at all precious about my hair. I grow it long, I cut it all off, I dye it all sorts of colours. At the end of the day, it's just hair and it will grow back - quickly, in my case. We're off on a camping holiday soon, so I thought it would be a great idea to get a lovely, easy-to-manage gamine crop, so I don't have to faff with straightners and all sorts of products, or spend the week looking like a chav in a baseball cap. I've had it cropped before - it was very nice, thank you. My hair wasn't exactly long earlier today, so I wasn't expecting a huuuuuge difference...

Eeeeeeek!!!! I swear there was a small furry mammal on the patio after she had finished! I thought we had gained a strange-looking dark bunny. Who knew so much hair could be cut from an already short hair-do? She hands me the mirror - "it's great!" I say. "It'll be fine once I've washed it and put some wax on it," I think to myself. It wasn't. I ran upstairs to dye it and hide the remnants of the increasing number of white hairs that seem to be appearing lately. I dried it (it took about 30 seconds!) and I styled it. It looked THE SAME!!! I reckon I could have done as good a job with a set of clippers and a number 3 guard on the blade.

I sent D a warning text. He hates it when I do this to my hair and I'm sure he'd much prefer it long, but it's not his hair, is it? He phoned, I cried and became somewhat hysterical. I never cry over my hair. He told me he will work as much overtime as is humanly possible so that we can afford for me to go to a salon next time. I tried re-styling it and putting on lots of makeup to look more girly. Finally, it didn't look too bad.

So, I am being very brave... Here I am now (remember, I am a 29 year old woman, not a 15 year old boy):

See that? That's what they call a 'brave face'. Now all I have to do is sit and wait for it to grow...

The Flame

Ooooh, heaven!! I spent today at a fire fighter training centre!! How jealous are you? ;-p I was nominated to go on a fire warden course for work and was dreading it. I have done a couple of this sort of course in my previous guise as a Virgin bird, and they can be really boring, but this one was actually rather interesting and informative. Of course, it helped that the trainer was quite cute and that there were quite a few fit young trainee fire fighters decoratively adorning the place.... What is it about women and firemen? It's not as if the uniform is even nice any more, but if a bunch of them drive past in their big red truck, us girls almost pass out! Mind you, I quite like other 'uniformed' jobs, especially the police in those all-black get-ups they wear when they want to look really hard - mmmmmm!

Oh yeah, I got to put out three fires and everything! Check me....

Where Were You When The Storm Broke?

... In our new tent-and-tunnel combo Mom!! Bought it from good old Sainso's for half the original price and I think it's a hit. Obviously, it's meant for children, but the buns are my kids, n'est ce pas? What is it with those pop-up tents though? Once they're out of the cover there's no way on earth they're going back in again! The instructions state, "The tent should twist easily into a circle". Please note the use of the word 'should'...

I'm having a 'fat' day today. Now, I'm not usually hung up about my weight; I'm a chuffer and I know it. I eat a lot of the wrong foods and I know the only way I can help myself is to eat healthy and exercise. Problem is I don't like healthy and I don't have time for exercise... Today, however, I met up with my very lean friend K to hand over some wedding invites I've made for her and we went to Starbucks for a drink. I defy anyone to resist their blueberry (or was it blackberry?) whirl cheesecake! I consider myself quite the cheesecake connoisseur and this one is to die for. So, I then felt really guilty for eating it, especially as I'd spent an hour walking around town and my poor thighs were starting to chafe as I was wearing a skirt - god, how embarrassing to admit that! Still, I guess the hour's walking meant that the cheesecake calories didn't count, right?

I've been thinking about Kathy's song challenge and not coming up with too much. I know there are loads of songs that make me go 'aaah!', so I think I'll just have to add them to posts as and when I think of them. For starters, I'll have to have:

Bon Jovi - Thank You For Loving Me (of course!) and also 'I'll Be There For You'
Bryan Adams - 'Heaven' and 'I'll Always Be Right There' (MTV Unplugged versions)
Extreme - 'More Than Words'
Randy Crawford - Almaz
Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars

More to follow - can't think at the moment as D has Scuzz music channel on and I can't concentrate over the row!

Heat of the Night

Urgh! It's too damn HOT!!! I know, I know, we moan when it's cold and we moan when it's hot, but this really is hot. It's just so muggy and icky and I get all yucky and sticky at work and we've had to keep the children inside as it was just too hot to play out today. I am sat here wearing a very dodgy outfit but I just don't care cos no-one can see me and I feel relatively cool! The fan blasting out behind me may have something to do with that though... I do worry about the bunsters in this weather though - imagine being covered in all that fur in this heat?! I gave them a bottle of frozen water to lie against this morning, but I'm guessing they haven't a clue what it's for and have ignored it all day...

The trouble with this kind of weather is that I just don't feel like doing anything. Going to work is bad enough, but once I get home I just want to flop on the sofa and I feel like Kevin the Teenager from Harry Enfield. I have, however, made a card for the current template challenge on Carolyn's forum and as demonstrated by Kathy B . I'm quite liking this one actually :-)

Damn Blogger for making the pictures look crap!! Oh well, you get the idea... Right, I think I will go and watch Big Brother in bed (can't believe I'm still watching it *rolls eyes*) I'm glad D is on nights this week and I get the bed to myself. It's bad enough trying to sleep next to the snoring, grunting, farting monster that is my lovely hubby, but combine it with the heat and I don't stand a chance...

19

Yummmmm!! Went out with the work girlies last night for a scrummy meal at Jimmy Spice's in Solihull. I like it as it's an all-you-can-eat buffet type of affair, which is fab if you're an indecisive bod like me. It does seem a tad weird to have pizza, curry, pasta and spring rolls all on the one plate, but you only live once, eh? Only disappointment was that there was no choccie cake for pudding, so I had to have apple pie with my ice cream and flumps...

Now I know I am getting older when I go out with the work gang as we seem to split into two distinct groups of 'oldies' and 'youngsters'. (Obviously I am an 'oldie' by age, but a 'youngster' at heart... yeah, right! Actually, I was the oldest there last night - eeek!) A couple of the girls are still in there teens and watching them getting louder and lairy as the alcohol consumption increases is more embarrassing than funny. Was I like that at their age? Well, no, actually, but that's a story for another day... I guess I did behave like that when I started going out drinking, but that was when I was 15 and I grew out of it pretty early on. I'd be horrified if I thought my daughter was sneaking into pubs and clubs and getting hammered on 8 pints of strong cider a night! (I couldn't even drink one pint now without getting tipsy....)

How times have changed! We used to spend our Friday and Saturday evenings sitting on the benches outside the offy in the Aston Triangle at Aston Uni (see blog from 1st June) until we were brave enough to try getting past the bouncers at the Pot of Beer. Other haunts included The Hummingbird nightclub in Dale End (now the Carling Academy) and The Institute nightclub in Digbeth. I can't believe I was only 15!! When I look at girls that age now, it scares me how young they are, yet how mature they think they are, and I guess I must have been the same. I think I was fairly responsible though, as although I liked a drink, I could hold it well and never got so rat-arsed that I didn't know what I was doing. I never did drugs or went off with strange men and always made sure I got a male friend to walk me and my best mate to the bus stop for the last bus home. Funniest part of the night was walking in the front door, trying to pretend I wasn't that drunk and chewing on gum to disguise the smell of ciggies on my breath! Oh, I thought I had my parents fooled....

So, back to last night; a good night was had by all and we 'oldies' departed at about 11 pm after finishing our J2Os and walking back to the car in our sensible shoes. After a cuppa at my boss's house, I came home to spend a very hot, restless night in bed before getting up at stupid o'clock to take D to work. Thank goodness he's on nights this week - I might be able to get some kip!