I have always been a huge fan of the Strictly come dancing show, as firstly it is one that the whole family can sit round and enjoy with a few sweets and laugh at the outrageous costumes, and enjoy the effortless grace of the professionals and admire the fact that Darren Bennett can make white pumps look cool!.
The show in my mind has always been a bit of a variety show, with some of the celebrities there to show the world that apart from reviving a breathless career and angling for a part in Chicago that they actually can dance and are not just a one trick pony. Then you have the celebrities there who are purely there for crowd entertainment who cant dance for toffee but can make the judges argue and Craig Greville Hall give the infamous score of 1 an airing (priceless).
So it seems rather idiotic to me that John Sergeant has made this furor of leaving the show as he NOW deems it unfair for him to carry on in the competition as it is a DANCE competition , where have you been John Living in a cave , I would say dancing in a cave but we all know that would be stretching things a bit.
I feel very disappointed , as hundreds if not thousands of people put the spanner in the works by voting for this dance nightmare for the sheer fact that they wanted him to stay in the show, after all this is what a democracy is all about , unfair in this instance or not this is the name of the game of Strictly come Dancing , the people have the chance to vote. So it just makes a total sham of things for him to let everyone down now, why not at the beginning we all new week one he couldn't bloody string two steps together.
All I can think of is the power of the press factor here to rival the x Factors press coverage which again is taking strictly to an even tackier level than that of the male celebrities Latin shirts, are we all mugs.
I think the tv producers feel we are with all these reality tv shows and everyone on the xfactor being "world Class" all of which you never hear hide nor hair of again once the cameras stop rolling after they are voted off.
This could go one of two ways now. John will either make a grand gesture of rejoining the show (which I think he will) which will send voters into a frenzy, or they will make him into a mar tyre on the show on Saturday which will make people tune in to watch anyway just to see if he does show up, either way the bbc cannot loose.
I think they misjudges his exit by a week or two though if you ask me, as on the t'other side, 2 weeks ago Mariah Carey was on which I would of thought would have been a more credible opponent in the ratings war, this week we have the amazing talent of Same Difference on the xFactor Stage which will probably have people turning to the BBC for cover anyway I hope!
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Painful nostalgia
Just to confuse half term even more, my eldest sons school breaks up a week before my other children's various schools, which completely buggers up my last week of morning freedom, er I mean , lets me have some "quality" time with no.1 son! , quality time in inverted commas indeed.
Well as he started a new big school this year I thought it would be nice if he spent a day or so with his new chums, so we invited one to come swimming for the day. Just happens to be the one friend who is the son of my other children's french teacher (great pick there son) but hey ho, off we go to the local leisure centre swimming.
I myself did not partake, just sat in the viewing gallery without a coffee as the blasted cafeteria was closed, just as well as paint stripper resembles the quality of coffee on offer there.
So there I sat watching the children with my quick crosswords book which after attempting several and not completing them leaving me to feel like a total do-do I started to people watch and contemplate.
It was 4 years ago next Friday when our world around us, as we knew it then collapsed.
One night of severe agony in my tummy 8 weeks after the birth of our 5th child, a rush to casualty and an emergency 5 hour operation later and I discovered in intensive care I had advanced aggressive bowel cancer, complete with colostomy bag. If that wasn't enough 3 days later just after emerging from intensive care, another fatal blow, the other half of my bowel burst, leaving me with another 5 hour op peritonitis and an ieliostomy, some people get ologys you know, but I had to go one further.
A dark bleak time followed, 5 children , a damp house in need of renovation we had just moved to, and advanced cancer, things you would have thought couldn't have got any worse.
They did.
6 months of agonising chemo, with every side effect you can and cannot possibly imagine, radiotherapy, builders (you must read my book A November to remember, and yes I try to plug it in every blog!)10 more hours of surgery, I don't think any one could even attempt to beat my determination to get through.
Whilst I was frequenting casualty my husband was in charge of the children. dropping the ones at school to school, the one at nursery to nursery , and then off to the leisure centre to put baby in the creche whilst he had a valuable hour to himself to pray whilst on the running machine that I would come back safe.
Sitting by that very same gym today, I had to wipe a tear from my eye, as it oh so very much reminded me of that fate full time. The time when all I wanted was to go home, praying every night I would start to get better soon, get some strength to do the most menial of tasks, frustrated at my body's lack of compromise to get me home sooner.
I used to watch the nurses change there shifts, to go home to there families and sob each night, knowing I would miss that evenings good night kiss from my little ones, knowing it would be another night without mummy for them, how that scar still throbs inside. Even when I am now chasing the little buggers up the stairs for the umpteenth time to get there jammys on!.
Life has indeed moved on. The house no longer damp, the children no longer very small and the baby no longer a baby. My husband thank full that he is back at work and no longer doing the school run!, and me, a different person completely.
Thank full for life, scarred by the pain cancer causes, but ever, ever so much in the game.
A November to remember is available from Lynn's bowel cancer campaign www.bowelcancer.tv and all good bookshops.
Well as he started a new big school this year I thought it would be nice if he spent a day or so with his new chums, so we invited one to come swimming for the day. Just happens to be the one friend who is the son of my other children's french teacher (great pick there son) but hey ho, off we go to the local leisure centre swimming.
I myself did not partake, just sat in the viewing gallery without a coffee as the blasted cafeteria was closed, just as well as paint stripper resembles the quality of coffee on offer there.
So there I sat watching the children with my quick crosswords book which after attempting several and not completing them leaving me to feel like a total do-do I started to people watch and contemplate.
It was 4 years ago next Friday when our world around us, as we knew it then collapsed.
One night of severe agony in my tummy 8 weeks after the birth of our 5th child, a rush to casualty and an emergency 5 hour operation later and I discovered in intensive care I had advanced aggressive bowel cancer, complete with colostomy bag. If that wasn't enough 3 days later just after emerging from intensive care, another fatal blow, the other half of my bowel burst, leaving me with another 5 hour op peritonitis and an ieliostomy, some people get ologys you know, but I had to go one further.
A dark bleak time followed, 5 children , a damp house in need of renovation we had just moved to, and advanced cancer, things you would have thought couldn't have got any worse.
They did.
6 months of agonising chemo, with every side effect you can and cannot possibly imagine, radiotherapy, builders (you must read my book A November to remember, and yes I try to plug it in every blog!)10 more hours of surgery, I don't think any one could even attempt to beat my determination to get through.
Whilst I was frequenting casualty my husband was in charge of the children. dropping the ones at school to school, the one at nursery to nursery , and then off to the leisure centre to put baby in the creche whilst he had a valuable hour to himself to pray whilst on the running machine that I would come back safe.
Sitting by that very same gym today, I had to wipe a tear from my eye, as it oh so very much reminded me of that fate full time. The time when all I wanted was to go home, praying every night I would start to get better soon, get some strength to do the most menial of tasks, frustrated at my body's lack of compromise to get me home sooner.
I used to watch the nurses change there shifts, to go home to there families and sob each night, knowing I would miss that evenings good night kiss from my little ones, knowing it would be another night without mummy for them, how that scar still throbs inside. Even when I am now chasing the little buggers up the stairs for the umpteenth time to get there jammys on!.
Life has indeed moved on. The house no longer damp, the children no longer very small and the baby no longer a baby. My husband thank full that he is back at work and no longer doing the school run!, and me, a different person completely.
Thank full for life, scarred by the pain cancer causes, but ever, ever so much in the game.
A November to remember is available from Lynn's bowel cancer campaign www.bowelcancer.tv and all good bookshops.
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
five minutes of fame
Picture the scene,
I am in my bathroom grouting the tiles I put up oh such a long time ago, when the phone rings. Who can it be I ask myself my husband and children call me on the Mobile and I have no friends so who could be calling?.
Grout covered hands I pick up the phone, low and behold it is Cordelia, I do not know a Cordelia, I think to myself whilst saying a very cheery "Hello" (how false).
It turns out she is from GMTV, and we spoke a few years ago when I was on the show with Lynne Faulds Wood talking about bowel cancer and my trusty book "A NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER " if you STILL haven't got a copy, shame on you.
She wanted to know if I was free for filming the following morning, or that evening to do a piece on wrong diagnosis, in A &E Departments.
Hmm, I thought, this one is tricky as yes I was wrongly diagnosed for 17 years, and in many times at A & E but not at my current A & E whom I very much owe much of my survival too.
Anyhow, Whilst on the phone the postman was careering up the drive with arm fulls of post which he had been unable to deliver due to the strike, some of which needed signing for so I ended the call leaving it that she would call me in five minutes to confirm either today or tomorrow for filming.
It didn't even take me the time it takes to get to the front door to start having second thought, more in fact like the time it took to replace the receiver.
I know my situation is a blue print case of misdiagnosis, but not down to A &E these guys work so so hard to try to stabilise things, some times when I went in I couldn't even speak through sheer pain, and they managed to deal with things professionally and as quick as humanly possible; considering all of the many channels they need to go through just to prescribe an aspirin let alone huge amounts of Morphine which I needed constantly.
They are overworked and underpaid, and a service we can do without. I have seen this from both sides of the card.
My son and I waited for 5 hours to be seen when he fractured his arm, I waited ten minutes when I was rushed in on several occasions, its all about prioritising, and a difficult difficult task that is. Especially when you have the elderly coming in in droves who are only there because mainly they are lonely, or haven't been eating properly, which in turn leaves the children with breakages waiting ,as a break is easier to determine than that of loneliness - or if there actually IS really a root problem underlying all else.
Our A & E is facing closure which in turn is devastating, I know for one I would not have made it any further afield at my worst times and also know that those times could so easily come again, and a&E will be my first port of call for assistance but if it is not there, then where and what do I do?.
Wrong or poor diagnosis is a frightening thing and having experienced this first hand, I know if I had been diagnosed properly all those years ago I would not have suffered like I have, but then again I wouldn't have helped all of those I have by writing about Bowel cancer, so always a double edged sword.
I am not angry or bitter about my diagnosis being missed, due to age I didn't fit the criteria of bowel cancer so it wasn't even thought of. And my case was so severe that my surgeon was amazed during the many operations he performed on me; I am a total contradiction to everything he had read and learned which must be a huge amount, but at the end of the day all that reading he did helped me, as he saved my life from one of the most aggressive silent killers known to man.
Some of us are put on this planet for self gain, self promotion, others the quiet ones to help others for self gain. I like to think of myself as one of the quiet ones along with my surgeon and the armada of nurses and A &E who helped me to get through my cancer, no limelight just respect which is reflected on both sides.
So I was not the right person to criticize A & E and my son was a bit coughy with a chesty cough so I called to say I couldn't commit, and my relief was comforting after making the call.
My son asked me the other day what I was good at ( as in there eyes I believe its not much), I thought about it a bit, anagrams I am fairly good at and I can tile a good floor, ut I believe my forte is or well are(apart from my flashes of brilliance at writing of course) contentment, I am happy with my lot and rarely wish for anything more ( apart from complete isolation from the outside world - should live in a field - animals are far more gentler creatures), and surviving, as I do this without thinking day to day, each day a different challenge never two the same. But the one thing I am not good at is fame, I don't like attention nor talking about myself, writing about myself yes ( a lot can be put into the imagination through word, but I sound a bit like Dick Van Dike from Mary Poppins when I open me gob!, true thing guvner)so the GMTV sofa this time around wasn't beckoning me forth.
So after all the mornings excitement I have a Son who drinks nothing but milk with a cough, and a wall with dried on waterproof grout to clean, oh and I need to call my mother in law back, after picking up the rest of the gang, and then doing the dinner, OH and the chest of drawers needs painting, mirrors need hanging........
The life of a celeb - you just can't beat it!
I am in my bathroom grouting the tiles I put up oh such a long time ago, when the phone rings. Who can it be I ask myself my husband and children call me on the Mobile and I have no friends so who could be calling?.
Grout covered hands I pick up the phone, low and behold it is Cordelia, I do not know a Cordelia, I think to myself whilst saying a very cheery "Hello" (how false).
It turns out she is from GMTV, and we spoke a few years ago when I was on the show with Lynne Faulds Wood talking about bowel cancer and my trusty book "A NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER " if you STILL haven't got a copy, shame on you.
She wanted to know if I was free for filming the following morning, or that evening to do a piece on wrong diagnosis, in A &E Departments.
Hmm, I thought, this one is tricky as yes I was wrongly diagnosed for 17 years, and in many times at A & E but not at my current A & E whom I very much owe much of my survival too.
Anyhow, Whilst on the phone the postman was careering up the drive with arm fulls of post which he had been unable to deliver due to the strike, some of which needed signing for so I ended the call leaving it that she would call me in five minutes to confirm either today or tomorrow for filming.
It didn't even take me the time it takes to get to the front door to start having second thought, more in fact like the time it took to replace the receiver.
I know my situation is a blue print case of misdiagnosis, but not down to A &E these guys work so so hard to try to stabilise things, some times when I went in I couldn't even speak through sheer pain, and they managed to deal with things professionally and as quick as humanly possible; considering all of the many channels they need to go through just to prescribe an aspirin let alone huge amounts of Morphine which I needed constantly.
They are overworked and underpaid, and a service we can do without. I have seen this from both sides of the card.
My son and I waited for 5 hours to be seen when he fractured his arm, I waited ten minutes when I was rushed in on several occasions, its all about prioritising, and a difficult difficult task that is. Especially when you have the elderly coming in in droves who are only there because mainly they are lonely, or haven't been eating properly, which in turn leaves the children with breakages waiting ,as a break is easier to determine than that of loneliness - or if there actually IS really a root problem underlying all else.
Our A & E is facing closure which in turn is devastating, I know for one I would not have made it any further afield at my worst times and also know that those times could so easily come again, and a&E will be my first port of call for assistance but if it is not there, then where and what do I do?.
Wrong or poor diagnosis is a frightening thing and having experienced this first hand, I know if I had been diagnosed properly all those years ago I would not have suffered like I have, but then again I wouldn't have helped all of those I have by writing about Bowel cancer, so always a double edged sword.
I am not angry or bitter about my diagnosis being missed, due to age I didn't fit the criteria of bowel cancer so it wasn't even thought of. And my case was so severe that my surgeon was amazed during the many operations he performed on me; I am a total contradiction to everything he had read and learned which must be a huge amount, but at the end of the day all that reading he did helped me, as he saved my life from one of the most aggressive silent killers known to man.
Some of us are put on this planet for self gain, self promotion, others the quiet ones to help others for self gain. I like to think of myself as one of the quiet ones along with my surgeon and the armada of nurses and A &E who helped me to get through my cancer, no limelight just respect which is reflected on both sides.
So I was not the right person to criticize A & E and my son was a bit coughy with a chesty cough so I called to say I couldn't commit, and my relief was comforting after making the call.
My son asked me the other day what I was good at ( as in there eyes I believe its not much), I thought about it a bit, anagrams I am fairly good at and I can tile a good floor, ut I believe my forte is or well are(apart from my flashes of brilliance at writing of course) contentment, I am happy with my lot and rarely wish for anything more ( apart from complete isolation from the outside world - should live in a field - animals are far more gentler creatures), and surviving, as I do this without thinking day to day, each day a different challenge never two the same. But the one thing I am not good at is fame, I don't like attention nor talking about myself, writing about myself yes ( a lot can be put into the imagination through word, but I sound a bit like Dick Van Dike from Mary Poppins when I open me gob!, true thing guvner)so the GMTV sofa this time around wasn't beckoning me forth.
So after all the mornings excitement I have a Son who drinks nothing but milk with a cough, and a wall with dried on waterproof grout to clean, oh and I need to call my mother in law back, after picking up the rest of the gang, and then doing the dinner, OH and the chest of drawers needs painting, mirrors need hanging........
The life of a celeb - you just can't beat it!
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Elvis has not left this building!
I don't know whether or not you watched the Greatest Elvis show over the past two weekends hosted by Vernon Kaye, but being great great Elvis fans - we did!.
I understand that Vernon got a lot , well a tremendous amount of stick in the newspapers with regards to his suit, his attempts at Elvis impersonating, I on the other hand think he did a wonderful job of hosting a great show , it just really goes to show us all what an utterly fabulous creation Elvis was.
Some of the "Elvi" as Vernon called them, where so very very good, if you closed your eyes, certain phrasing they used Elvis was back and bigger than ever. One, a Swedish one looked a bit like him and when he sang "If I could dream" well , if he was on x factor he should have won it with that one performance. Joe Espisito was one of the judges who was there for Elvis's original performance of the song however said as he had been at the original nothing would ever come close, which I thought although true a bit harsh as the boy did good.
We where thoroughly entertained by all the Elvi, and thought the show was a great idea, as god only knows how many Elvis's there are out there, and are they doing any harm?, no they are actually bringing the Joy that Elvis did through his music, looks etc.
Balls to them all Vernon, I think you did a great job, and lets be honest no one will ever be able to wear a white suit/black leather suit like Elvis did, never ever.
So to all you miserable reporters out there, there is an easy answer if the show comes back on again, don't watch it!
I understand that Vernon got a lot , well a tremendous amount of stick in the newspapers with regards to his suit, his attempts at Elvis impersonating, I on the other hand think he did a wonderful job of hosting a great show , it just really goes to show us all what an utterly fabulous creation Elvis was.
Some of the "Elvi" as Vernon called them, where so very very good, if you closed your eyes, certain phrasing they used Elvis was back and bigger than ever. One, a Swedish one looked a bit like him and when he sang "If I could dream" well , if he was on x factor he should have won it with that one performance. Joe Espisito was one of the judges who was there for Elvis's original performance of the song however said as he had been at the original nothing would ever come close, which I thought although true a bit harsh as the boy did good.
We where thoroughly entertained by all the Elvi, and thought the show was a great idea, as god only knows how many Elvis's there are out there, and are they doing any harm?, no they are actually bringing the Joy that Elvis did through his music, looks etc.
Balls to them all Vernon, I think you did a great job, and lets be honest no one will ever be able to wear a white suit/black leather suit like Elvis did, never ever.
So to all you miserable reporters out there, there is an easy answer if the show comes back on again, don't watch it!
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Happy days!
Sunday , Monday Happy Days,
Tursday Wednesday Happy Days
Thursdays Friday Happy days
The Weekend Comes
The neighbours have GONE!!!!!!!
Oh bliss, joy and bliss, I am embraced with comfort after those horrid horrid people have packed up and gone.
After taking my daily concoction of sickness tablets and headache tablets and pain killers (priory here I come), I noticed whilst painting my daughters wardrobe a removal van, yes I did pich myself in the hope that I was not indeed hallucinating, but no, a red mark from the pinch I had but pain releived as I still had a removal van before my eyes through the hedgerow.
Cup of coffee in hand I immediatley phoned husband who then went out and got a starbucks to celebrate.
We first got an incling of a move way back in June, but then all went quiet and back to frosty stares from them everytime they went past we suffered, but low and behold they did it, they have gone.
To celebrate I thought I would cut the verge when the coast was safe and clear and they had left for the last time. Not a sole came to say farewell, If I had been made aware that today was the day I would have organised a 21 gun salute, one shot would surely have got the bastard by law of averages.
With so much I wanted to say, I thought best to lay low and say nothing at all, so scurried around the house until I thought all was safe.
Out my son and I go with the lawn mower, start its engine and think of stripe verge nirvana, when bugger me there they are, laughing and staring from there car window at the foot of my drive.
Oh hell I thought, I must look so so sad.
So off I scuttle with son screaming that he wanted to cut the grass, so I drag the mower back through and cut the back, with the usuall audience of prunes next door clearly judging me by my stripes, but for the last time, as eventually they went.
And yes, for the first time I got pleasure from cutting the verge, clearly laying out a boundary line for no-one to cross ever again (I have, I just gathered, been in the road too long as I am turning into a verge cutter).
Ah bliss, no more staring no more pinched faces spitting at us with there venom, ah yes, things are definately looking up.
Or are they,
Now I start to wonder who will be arriving at the prunes?, well lets face it they cant be any worse than the prunes themselves - can they?
Tursday Wednesday Happy Days
Thursdays Friday Happy days
The Weekend Comes
The neighbours have GONE!!!!!!!
Oh bliss, joy and bliss, I am embraced with comfort after those horrid horrid people have packed up and gone.
After taking my daily concoction of sickness tablets and headache tablets and pain killers (priory here I come), I noticed whilst painting my daughters wardrobe a removal van, yes I did pich myself in the hope that I was not indeed hallucinating, but no, a red mark from the pinch I had but pain releived as I still had a removal van before my eyes through the hedgerow.
Cup of coffee in hand I immediatley phoned husband who then went out and got a starbucks to celebrate.
We first got an incling of a move way back in June, but then all went quiet and back to frosty stares from them everytime they went past we suffered, but low and behold they did it, they have gone.
To celebrate I thought I would cut the verge when the coast was safe and clear and they had left for the last time. Not a sole came to say farewell, If I had been made aware that today was the day I would have organised a 21 gun salute, one shot would surely have got the bastard by law of averages.
With so much I wanted to say, I thought best to lay low and say nothing at all, so scurried around the house until I thought all was safe.
Out my son and I go with the lawn mower, start its engine and think of stripe verge nirvana, when bugger me there they are, laughing and staring from there car window at the foot of my drive.
Oh hell I thought, I must look so so sad.
So off I scuttle with son screaming that he wanted to cut the grass, so I drag the mower back through and cut the back, with the usuall audience of prunes next door clearly judging me by my stripes, but for the last time, as eventually they went.
And yes, for the first time I got pleasure from cutting the verge, clearly laying out a boundary line for no-one to cross ever again (I have, I just gathered, been in the road too long as I am turning into a verge cutter).
Ah bliss, no more staring no more pinched faces spitting at us with there venom, ah yes, things are definately looking up.
Or are they,
Now I start to wonder who will be arriving at the prunes?, well lets face it they cant be any worse than the prunes themselves - can they?
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
What a life
Oh what a life this is.
Sometimes you are dreadfully unlucky and are touched along the path of life with very horrid people, read brain numbing stories of z list celebs trying to make names for themselves, Christopher Biggins, no need to say anymore.
Then there are the few you meet who inspire, catapult you into areas you would never dared to go without the inspiration , support determination of these said few My Husband, who got me through Cancer with my children, Lance Armstrong who through the pages of his book made me get on my bike and get on with things showed me a way out of the darkness, which i pedaled like mad and got through to a future although dimly lit at times - a future.
Jane Tomlinson however pedaled, ran swam, her way making a future for herself out of one she was told she didn't have.
Am amazing woman, husband, family who have been an inspiration and will be an inspiration to many for evermore. She took the crap life threw at her chewed it and spat it out and showed us all that with fight spirit and determination things can most certainly be changed.
I heard the news yesterday on the radio whilst painting the hallway, I was rather excited before the bulletin came on as I had just heard a friend of mine on the radio talking about school sizes, as , as with my son her eldest daughter had started her new "big" school that day.
I myself was not as nervous as she sounded , as after going through what I and my family have I was thank full , so very thank full that I was here to pick up the children and listen to there first day back stories - what ever they where going to be good or bad (luckily they where good), when at the news break the news about Jane Tomlinson came out.
I felt like I had been punched, Cancer is a powerful foe which can crush at any time it wants to, but Jane Tomlinson was proving an exception to that rule, she was calling the shots, she was doing this on her terms, she was showing us all.
You and your husbands courage and fight will not be forgotten
God bless you.
Sometimes you are dreadfully unlucky and are touched along the path of life with very horrid people, read brain numbing stories of z list celebs trying to make names for themselves, Christopher Biggins, no need to say anymore.
Then there are the few you meet who inspire, catapult you into areas you would never dared to go without the inspiration , support determination of these said few My Husband, who got me through Cancer with my children, Lance Armstrong who through the pages of his book made me get on my bike and get on with things showed me a way out of the darkness, which i pedaled like mad and got through to a future although dimly lit at times - a future.
Jane Tomlinson however pedaled, ran swam, her way making a future for herself out of one she was told she didn't have.
Am amazing woman, husband, family who have been an inspiration and will be an inspiration to many for evermore. She took the crap life threw at her chewed it and spat it out and showed us all that with fight spirit and determination things can most certainly be changed.
I heard the news yesterday on the radio whilst painting the hallway, I was rather excited before the bulletin came on as I had just heard a friend of mine on the radio talking about school sizes, as , as with my son her eldest daughter had started her new "big" school that day.
I myself was not as nervous as she sounded , as after going through what I and my family have I was thank full , so very thank full that I was here to pick up the children and listen to there first day back stories - what ever they where going to be good or bad (luckily they where good), when at the news break the news about Jane Tomlinson came out.
I felt like I had been punched, Cancer is a powerful foe which can crush at any time it wants to, but Jane Tomlinson was proving an exception to that rule, she was calling the shots, she was doing this on her terms, she was showing us all.
You and your husbands courage and fight will not be forgotten
God bless you.
Sunday, 19 August 2007
What a wash out
Were back.
From a week in Devon, well 5 days as it was SO wet and cold we decided (I decided) enough was enough, and we came home.
Never been to Devon before, didn't like the place we stayed in, everyone was called John and all where very surly as other visitors mentioned in the guest book at the house we rented (which I might add at this point was beautiful, only it didn't have any curtains in the lounge so made viewing Dr Who rather difficult when the only sun of the day came over at 7pm; invention to the rescue with bin liners and sticky tape), but we did find a beach about 30 mins away from us which was fantastic for surfing which we all enjoyed very very much.
Although after surfing we were all bloody freezing, with gale force winds whipping around our ears, at one point children and I huddled around smallest member of the family like penguins to try and banish the cold, which took the edge off it all a bit.
I realised on this holiday that my eldest children are ready for a bit more adventure from there holidays, although we had lots of fun, the girls definitely wanted the chance to wear there fashionable summer clothes instead of the fleece and thermal socks which where a must.
It would be very nice to wake up in the morning on holiday and think that we could just go to the beach and spend the day there,and not ,that we can stick it out for a few hours before we get hypothermia.
What with packing lunches, the daily washing of clothes, it didn't really feel like a holiday at all. The only plus was that we where all together and we had Dr Who to watch, and the surfing (body boarding queen I was - even bested the children - ha!), but after three days I was pretty much done, and I think so where the children. I guess after 13 years of sticking it out on a freezing cold beach we are due for a change, and I think next year a change it will be, probably will spend the whole time moaning its too darn hot, no pleasing some people!.
WE came home however to a house full of plaster dust and not much done. Our builders had been given our week away to complete the project, believe me when I say the task involved was not the krypton factor, but none the less has not been finished which of course means they have to return - deep joy.
So we are frantically trying to finish at least one room; the builders obviously have a sense of humour here as they have started 3 rooms and finished none of them, which makes our task slightly impossible. Husband is a master ceiling painter and has achieved 3 ceilings but sadly has run out of paint, so the ceiling he started 4 years ago, yes 4, in the lounge has eluded him once again as this was not a priority.
I have gotten used to order in the home (thanks to Anthea Turner)and feel very very aggravated at the fact it is now not organised and clean. Clean; oh don't get me started on clean, it was a terrible state when we got home, still as the more we try to sort it, the dustier it becomes, I have to keep telling myself it will get better, several times a day, I do hope so.
To top it all we lost 2 of our chickeroonies to a very sly old fox, which was a blow, and very unfair on my poor mother in law to have had to suffer that as she was minding them for us, nothing is going right at the moment.
Still have the dog to collect tomorrow, and chickens will have to be replaced (have told tweenie children that they where sick, so by the time they have got the new ones they will have hopefully forgotten about the old ones -oh the webs we weave)Husband has told me we can get another dog and some piggies, should say hurrah to that but am low on the gusto at the moment, still will keep anyone posted who cares to listen.
From a week in Devon, well 5 days as it was SO wet and cold we decided (I decided) enough was enough, and we came home.
Never been to Devon before, didn't like the place we stayed in, everyone was called John and all where very surly as other visitors mentioned in the guest book at the house we rented (which I might add at this point was beautiful, only it didn't have any curtains in the lounge so made viewing Dr Who rather difficult when the only sun of the day came over at 7pm; invention to the rescue with bin liners and sticky tape), but we did find a beach about 30 mins away from us which was fantastic for surfing which we all enjoyed very very much.
Although after surfing we were all bloody freezing, with gale force winds whipping around our ears, at one point children and I huddled around smallest member of the family like penguins to try and banish the cold, which took the edge off it all a bit.
I realised on this holiday that my eldest children are ready for a bit more adventure from there holidays, although we had lots of fun, the girls definitely wanted the chance to wear there fashionable summer clothes instead of the fleece and thermal socks which where a must.
It would be very nice to wake up in the morning on holiday and think that we could just go to the beach and spend the day there,and not ,that we can stick it out for a few hours before we get hypothermia.
What with packing lunches, the daily washing of clothes, it didn't really feel like a holiday at all. The only plus was that we where all together and we had Dr Who to watch, and the surfing (body boarding queen I was - even bested the children - ha!), but after three days I was pretty much done, and I think so where the children. I guess after 13 years of sticking it out on a freezing cold beach we are due for a change, and I think next year a change it will be, probably will spend the whole time moaning its too darn hot, no pleasing some people!.
WE came home however to a house full of plaster dust and not much done. Our builders had been given our week away to complete the project, believe me when I say the task involved was not the krypton factor, but none the less has not been finished which of course means they have to return - deep joy.
So we are frantically trying to finish at least one room; the builders obviously have a sense of humour here as they have started 3 rooms and finished none of them, which makes our task slightly impossible. Husband is a master ceiling painter and has achieved 3 ceilings but sadly has run out of paint, so the ceiling he started 4 years ago, yes 4, in the lounge has eluded him once again as this was not a priority.
I have gotten used to order in the home (thanks to Anthea Turner)and feel very very aggravated at the fact it is now not organised and clean. Clean; oh don't get me started on clean, it was a terrible state when we got home, still as the more we try to sort it, the dustier it becomes, I have to keep telling myself it will get better, several times a day, I do hope so.
To top it all we lost 2 of our chickeroonies to a very sly old fox, which was a blow, and very unfair on my poor mother in law to have had to suffer that as she was minding them for us, nothing is going right at the moment.
Still have the dog to collect tomorrow, and chickens will have to be replaced (have told tweenie children that they where sick, so by the time they have got the new ones they will have hopefully forgotten about the old ones -oh the webs we weave)Husband has told me we can get another dog and some piggies, should say hurrah to that but am low on the gusto at the moment, still will keep anyone posted who cares to listen.
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