Tuesday 31 January 2017

January stuff

I decided to make a quick comeback with a stuff that made January bearable post. It's been a hard month really, and I seem to have felt the dark mornings and dark nights so much more than in other years, but I think that has mainly been down to the general 'bleurgh' that has come with the cold that shall no longer be named. 

Being hermitty has been right up there as one of my favourite things to do. I've liked nothing better than putting the fire on, turning the lights down low and snuggling up on the sofa with my favourite human and animal and settling in for the night. There's been some TV watching but a lot of the time I've been completely and utterly absorbed in my current read, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. There's something really cosy about reading when it's dark and cold outside and the curtains are closed against the outside world...like the equivalent of a big fluffy blanket! 


The only other really rather good thing about January has been the birthday celebrations - it's both mine and Dave's this month and we had a big family gathering, a night away, a pizza feast with our theatre family and lots and lots of cake. It was pretty fab really and my birthday keeps on giving as I'm still catching up with people who always seem to bring me presents - lucky me! Lots of snuggly, SO SOFT scarves have come my way, as well as some delicious lotions and potions and other delightful treats. Girl truly feels spoiled. 

I will definitely be glad to see the back of January 2017. So much bad and sad and snot and coughing STILL! But I don't want to end on a bad note...I'm hoping to be back in February with my daily blogging, well nearly every day, as long as there's something interesting to chat about. We'll see how it goes, no pressure, just fun. Fun in February - here's to that! 

Thursday 26 January 2017

Year in the life rethink

Well that didn't take long did it? Turns out that when the only 'interesting' thing you have to talk about is how the cold of doom is progressing, the idea of blogging every day doesn't seem that appealing. And not for the reasons you might think. It's actually not been that difficult to just sit down for 10 minutes at the end of each day and type something up, but I cannot help but feel that you must all be BORED RIGID by now of the constant moaning about the cold of doom. 

It honestly feels like it might never go away at this point. And until it does I think it's time to take a rest from sharing my snot stories with you just for the sake of writing something every day and just wait until I have something fun to share. 

Thanks for reading along so far, and I will still be here, just maybe not every day. And hopefully when the cold has gone for absolute good...

Bye for now friends, see you on the snot-free side! 

Wednesday 25 January 2017

Best birthday!

I had an absolutely tip-top day yesterday, on the day of my birth! I'm sure it won't come as too much of a surprise that it mainly included eating all of the food and all of the cake. You didn't guess? Nah I don't believe it! 

Work was work, but it was broken up really nicely by going out for lunch. And then going to buy cake. And then eating cake number 1. Woop! 

Came home to heaps of cards to open, flowers from Dave, more flowers, pink fizz, super hot chilli chocolate - so many lovely gifts and so unexpected! More wooping! 

Went to theatre and ate some really bloody delicious pizzas and chips with my theatre family where more cards and presents appeared - so spoiled! 

There was lots of coughing (standard cough and cold of doom comment - has to be done) but there was also more cake. Two more pieces of cake in fact. Yep that totals 3 cakes in one day. Yes I am a pig. And sadly yes, I guess I do care actually. 

And so today, the day after my birth, is the day that the gluttony stops. I'm not going to promise it's healthy eating all the way as I know that will be impossible and also not entirely desirable, bor-ring in fact! However there is some necessity for a pause and reboot type situation - just say no to the chocolate! 

Cold of doom and no cake. I guess no-one will want to read along now *sad face*

Over and out! 

Tuesday 24 January 2017

Happy eat all the cake day!

I can hardly quite believe it, but today I am going to be 42 years old. WHAT? How did this happen? 

All you need to know is that today I will be eating all of the cake. And the pizza. And basically any other treats as I see fit. Because I can, and want to. 

Cake rules! 

Monday 23 January 2017

Night Nurse nightmare

Take this, the pharmacist said, it'll knock you out and help you go to sleep...

That was a complete and utter lie. I took it. And BANG! I was wide awake! By 2am I still wasn't asleep. I finally dropped off about half an hour later and woke up feeling not so great. Thank god for being able to work from home! I've spent most of the day in a total daze, but a pretty productive one. Lots of things achieved, on top of my 'to action' emails, all in all, not too shabby, considering I've had approximately 4 seconds of sleep. Liars! 

I went to the GP instead. Lots of deep breath in, deep breath out, blow into this puffer thing and try not to fall over at your rubbish lung capacity...I now have a very short dose of steroids to reduce the inflammation and hopefully send the cough from hell out of my body. Come on! 

All that breathing in and breathing out wasn't so good for me. I came home and for about an hour I coughed and coughed and coughed. There was a lot of swearing. A lot. Even Bob covered his ears at one point. 

Anyhoo, that was today. How was your Monday? 

Sunday 22 January 2017

Weekend summary

1. ALL OF THE FOOD: This has to be in big, angry shouting capital letters as frankly the weekend can be summed up as eating all of the food. It started on Friday when I went to Deb's and we basically ate half of a rather large rectangular pizza each, accompanied by potato salad from Marks and Sparks and half a bar of hazelnut Lindt chocolate. It didn't really get any better when on Saturday night, our night away (!) I had an Asian style chicken burger that was so huge I could barely get my mouth round it. Of course I rallied on to ensure that the eating took place. This was accompanied by three times cooked chips (oh! so good!), fruity coleslaw and half a portion of beer battered onion rings. Deciding that wasn't enough we then went on to share The Dirty Dozen, a sharing dessert platter that was three types of ice cream, meringue, cookie crumble, brownie crumble, chocolate sauce, white chocolate chunks and berry compote. That kind of ended up doubling up as breakfast as when we woke up in the hotel this morning, the very idea of going to put more food into my already massive food baby belly was rather stomach turning. It's now several hours later and I'm about to polish off a Sunday roast which Dave has cooked for me. This very large paragraph is actually pretty grim reading, talk about gluttony. I think after the birthday it is most definitely time to take stock and get the food eating back on some kind of even keel. 

2. Watching 'Sisters'. When you have a cough that is brought on by laughing it's probably not the best thing to watch a totally hi-larious film all about sisters starring the wonderful Tina Fey and Amy Schumer. Oh how I laughed. Oh how I coughed! Big love to Debs for a) letting me go to her house with the cold of doom and b) discovering said movie, which she has actually now watched about eight times, not a lie. 

3. Birthday weekend away: After five years of cancelled plans due to various reasons that we don't need to go into, we finally made it away for a birthday weekend celebration! We headed to the rather delightful Kingslodge Inn, in Durham. We arrived in the dark and drizzly rain but that didn't stop us taking an evening stroll around the beautiful city before heading back and eating all of the food (see number 1 and try not to judge). The hotel was beaut, we had a sofa in our room, I know! The food was lush, the bed was big and comfy, all in all, a lovely time away was had. We would have stayed around for longer but we had to head home to pick up the Bobster from the dog sitting people... 

4. Speaking of big, bad Bobster, he stayed out for the very first time on an overnighter. We were assured that he behaved really well but since he's arrived back at home he's been sick all over the carpet and slept all day. Either this has something to do with the murky black stuff that was lingering around his mouth when we picked him up (dogs will literally eat anything, they are gross, true fact), or he's in meltdown cos we left him overnight for the first time and has decided to punish us. I'm swinging from one to the next at the moment. I'm not sure he's so bright to feel such stress, even the dog sitter basically said he is a big dopey blonde with nothing between his ears...cheeky, but kinda true *chuckles* but I'm sure he'll be fine tomorrow. This dog ownership thing is all kinds of tricksy! 

5. Cold of doom: Well I had to give you an update! It's still there. The cough literally will not die, and may kill me in the process. It's now advanced to some slight wheezing - worrying. I'm trying the pharmacist advice of this Day and Night Nurse for three days and if it's not gone by then I'm calling in the big guns and making a doctor's appointment - maybe it just needs some really good antibiotics to get rid of it for good and proper. But all the advice tells you to avoid visiting your GP and visit your pharmacist. It is truly hard to know what to do for the best as I really don't want to waste any GP time, but at the same time I can't put up with this for much longer, it's bloody rubbish! Stay tuned for more exciting updates...

6. And that's it! A rather eventful weekend but a blooming lovely one! If only they could all be this chill. Well, except for the dog barfing, but I guess you can't have everything! 

Hope you had a fab one! 

Friday 20 January 2017

Girls just wanna have fun

I'm writing this post up on Thursday night, ready to go live tomorrow, cos I am going out! Yasssssss! Me and the D are having a girlie night in, eating pizza and watching films. I can't wait! I haven't seen her since Christmas Eve and that is just way too long. The evil cold of doom is to blame, as it is for so many things at the moment. Will we ever make it through a post without mentioning it? Not until IT HAS LEFT MY BODY! Just sayin' 

There's all sorts of scary shizz has taken place today, which I try not to think about too much, involving the man with the ridiculous hair who is now the most powerful man in the world. I'm still the goggle eyed emoji over how that happened. Let's just hope that the world actually survives the next four years and makes it through in one piece. I'm not so sure...

Instead let us think about pizza and watching films with Tina Fey and Amy Schumer and catching up on all the gossip and travel plans and lotions and potions and all the fun and frivolous things in life. 

Have a cracking Friday night, whatever you may be doing. Bring the weekend ON! 

Thursday 19 January 2017

Joy to my ears

I recently re-subscribed to Spotify Premium and it is filling my ears with joy! Just before Christmas I basically searched every single Christmas playlist I could find, picked my favourite one and then played it every single day in December. True story. 

Along the way I've found so many other playlists to follow and mixes and oh! Joy of joys, there's even a whole playlist for grime music, which somehow (I still have no explanation for this) totally floats my boat! I've yet to blast that one out as I am 100% certain that is something that Dave will not enjoy one single tiny bit. Just wait til he's out of the house again though...

The best thing about it, for me, is listening to a song on the radio that I really like and then coming home to find more music by the same band. Tonight was Blossoms. Turns out I really like them too! Woop! It truly is joy to my ears every single day. 

Not so much joy to my ears is that whenever I yawn my right ear crackles. That I can tell you is definitely not joyous. Instead it is totally horrible and a reminder of how rubbish my ears actually are. If only getting different ears was an option. I could get on a plane again and fly to New Orleans for all the amazing music that would bring all the joy to my ears... *sigh*

In other news:

The cold of doom still will not die. It is actually really starting to wear me down. And today someone else is clearly starting with it in the office so it's just going to go round again. Nope. It cannot continue. Should you have any miracle cure for the cold of doom please do let me know. I beg of you! 

Busy busy work week - I can't believe it's Friday tomorrow! How did that happen?!?

I can see the weekend in sight! It's there! So close! Get in! 

See ya tomorrow! 

Wednesday 18 January 2017

Roving reporter

That whole day on a gritter thing at work the other day really started something off! Today I was down at a site where they were doing a massive clear up on a whole heap of fly tipping, followed by a visit to the bus station where there was an official opening of a dementia friendly quiet room with ribbon cutting and everything! I have to admit, it's kind of cool! I feel a bit like a roving reporter and am thinking of asking for a new job title. Join Claire as she live tweets from [insert random location and random task here] ... it could totally be a thing! 

Tell you what though, that adventure and a couple of meetings meant that I wasn't really at my desk at all and so it didn't feel like a productive day. Even though I obviously did get loads of things done, just in a different location and format I guess, from the usual type of work. 

Also it was really quite unfortunate that to get to the fly tipping site we basically had to cross a massive muddy field. And I was getting a ride in a car that was like a sporty saloon number where you have to clamber in and out of the back seat...and it had cream leather interior...cream leather + mud + trying to get in back seat = tricky shit! Followed by a really big team meeting with a brand new director and I had mud all over my trousers. Hmmmmm. Maybe I need some kind of waterproof suit to go with my new roving reporter status. Wipe clean? Too far? 

I ended the work day trying to take a selfie outside of a museum in town with my work buddy for museum selfie day. That is almost an impossible task when the museum is closed and it's dark outside. Just in case you were ever thinking of trying it for yourself. Don't. But if you want to fall about giggling helplessly as you try to decide whether kneeling on the floor with the camera pointing upwards will help to get the shot, absolutely have it as that is hi-larious! 

I might work in a 9 to 5 job but I can absolutely say that no two days are ever the same! I wonder what madness Thursday will bring? Bye-eee! 

Tuesday 17 January 2017

Rag Bone!

I have a sneaky suspicion that a rag and bone man is very definitely a British thing. The ones who walk up and down the streets shouting RAGBONE really loudly and collecting scrap metal? Yes? No? Is this a universal thing? 

Do we really need to know? I suppose not. 

But you very definitely should know about this Rag'n'Bone Man. Cos his song Human is my absolute fave right now. You know the drill by now, it comes on the radio, I turn it up loud, sing at the top of my voice and do my car seat dance shuffle. LOVE. IT. 

Interestingly, I had no clue what he looked like and thought maybe it would be another George Ezra type thing where that big deep melodious voice actually belonged to a skinny white dude. Turns out Rag'n'Bone Man suits his fantastic deep, gravelly voice very well! Take it away Man...

Monday 16 January 2017

Erm, where did Monday go?

Monday, wow. Dude, where did you go? One minute it was 8.45 and I was just logging on and the next minute it was after 5 and I was packing my laptop away to work from home tomorrow! I wish every Monday went by that quickly! It's been the same this evening too. Came home, made tea, tackled the giant ironing pile, did two loads of washing, washed up, did a couple of blogs, oh yeah and watched the very last in this season of Nashville! 

Nashville! What are you trying to do to me? I'm going to be totally honest with you here, I yelled a lot at the TV tonight. Mainly calling all the awful lay-dees the nasty names, so many bad ladies in this series! That Layla? Bee-atch! And Autumn? Ooooh missus, you be mean with a capital M! So much snogging, so much of the fuzzy feels, so much cliffhanger ending! WHEN WILL YOU BE BACK? Blimey. 

But what will I watch now when I do the ironing? It helps me to get through. Please send any suggestions in the comments. It preferably has to be a TV programme that contains lots of sparkly dresses, big hair, some easy on the eye, eye candy and all the drama. It's like my weekly fix! *sobs* 

I'd love to write more but I've got the washing up and the sorting of the socks to do before bed. This day shall be known as all of the jobs Monday. 

Later alligators. 

Sunday 15 January 2017

Birthday weekend / who's that ginger bird?!

Noooooooooo I missed a day! Bugger! I'm blaming the wine. It was birthday party weekend and everything, surely this is enough of an excuse?! Anyways, I'm back now and what a blummin' fab weekend! 

Yesterday was basically party central. Well, I say party, I think gathering is more of an appropriate term. Nearly all of Dave's family and my parents (had to have some Jennings representation against all that lot!) came round our house. We ate too much party food, definitely drank a few too many glasses of vino, enjoyed sparklers on top of the most fabulous cake and all round had an absolutely lovely afternoon/evening. By the time the majority of people had toddled off home it was just me and Dave and his brother and wife, which was simply fab. They fell big style hard for the Bobster so there was lots of cuddles and play fights which ended up in Bob deciding to climb on top of them and settle in for the night, which can be a bit of a shock the first time all forty kilos of him lands on you, but they loved it really! 

Shortly after they'd gone I decided it was still early enough for me to head off into town and catch the last couple of hours of Cat's birthday party! As you do. Just like a student, past 10pm, I got into a cab and headed to the second party of the day! It was really nice to see lots of familiar faces (and many I didn't know) as well as get to see the birthday girl in her poshy-posh dress and fancy fascinator - so glam! Drink a bit more wine, catch up with some people, see people that I haven't seen for absolutely years and pick right back up again...deffo worth leaving my toasty warm house and braving the cold weather! 

Sidenote: one lovely lady that I used to work with was there with her husband and when I came in he said to her, who's that ginger bird, I know her! She reminded him that I'd been at their wedding *chuckles* but it made me laugh all evening. I'm choosing that as the new description for myself: ginger bird. 

Came home just after midnight, so that I didn't turn into a pumpkin. Went to bed. End of Saturday. 

Sunday - the big birthday day! We slept in til 9! Shocker! Been to the beach with Bob, eaten some more birthday cake (anyone want any? We've got HEAPS!) I've been to the supermarket for the big shop and now we're winding down into a chilled out birthday evening - a tasty pizza for tea, cheesecake for pudding, maybe another cheeky beer or two, happy birthday to you! 

All in all, a rather fabulous weekend. 

But now we're all verrrrrry sleepy...


Over and out! 

Friday 13 January 2017

The day of the gritters

I'm making the assumption here that everyone knows what a gritter is...? But just in case, the gritters are the trucks that drive round chucking grit salt all over our roads when the weather is icy and cold. And today I went on one. Yep, Friday was Gritters Day! 

Me and two of my team mates headed off to the depot around about lunchtime. First of all we got a massive tour of all the cool places to see there, including sheds full of seasonal vehicles and the 2000+ tonnes of salt all stacked up ready to fill the trucks. We asked loads of questions, met all the gritters and basically had the time of our lives all in the name of work. We took loads of photos, we did a Boomerang video for Instagram and we did our very first live tweeting. It was all pretty cool, and the best thing of all was that it got loads of really good and positive engagement and showed people exactly where some of their money goes. 

Then we all got to go out on a gritting route! Mine was all through the town, over the border, past some of the best sights that the town has to offer and basically in and out and all around, totalling up 30 miles! And in that time we dropped about 7 tonnes of salt - totally cool! I did more live tweeting, including jumping out of the gritter at the bus station so that we could do a drive-by down the ramp. I loved how on board the gritter drivers were, everyone at the depot really, it was proper ace! 

In total we were all out of the office for about three hours, which is mental considering our crazy looming deadlines, but also totally brilliant and very well received. Driving home we were like excited kids at Christmas, stumbling over each other to say whose grit route had been the best and we did this, and we did that...so much fun! When we got back to the office everyone wanted to know what it had been like, where did we go, oh and maybe we'll need you to go out on Monday with a team that are doing a major clean up operation...YES! What with that and the cold of doom finally starting to shift, Friday was a tip-top day! 

Tomorrow is party time! And Sunday is the big birthday day, although let's face it we'll probably be sleeping through most of that due to some social beverage drinking or two tomorrow...

Happy weekend everyone! 

Thursday 12 January 2017

Life lessons lately

It's been a funny old start to the year. The Evil Death Cold, I think, has certainly affected my perception of things and my patience has not been so present, which has subsequently led to some very important life lessons. 

First of all, people are weird. Truly they are. This has been brought to my attention mainly by working in the world of social media. Perhaps that should be amended to people in the world of social media are weird. My basic point is that I think a lot of people don't always stop and think as they tweet/vent out in anger on the socials that there is a real life person on the other end who will have to deal with it. I get it, you're pissed, and the whole venting on the socials thing is your way of dealing with it, but give a girl a break. Hammering out 5 tweets in a row with the same message might just make said girl die inside a little bit...

Can I admit that it worries me ever so slightly that I'm going to become disillusioned very fast with the human race...? 

Life lesson/motto: people = weird. 

I'm still working on how I deal with that one. 

Another life lesson is one of gaining understanding. It can sometimes be hard, when people have ailments that they talk about constantly to have patience and try to be a little bit compassionate. I do try very hard but here is another example of when the Evil Death Cold has come into play. Please don't think for a minute that I'm comparing more serious ailments to my stupid cold, but over the last couple of weeks I have experienced how it can become all consuming when you are feeling rubbish. And you want to tell people about how rubbish you feel. In addition you have very little else to talk to people about as you've not been able to do anything or go anywhere due to feeling rubbish. I feel like all I've done since the beginning of the year is moan to people about my cough and cold and I'm quite bored now so I'm sure everyone else is too - sorry! 

Life lesson: feeling rubbish can easily become all consuming. 
Motto/action: Try to practice more patience and understanding and empathy.

My final life lesson is that even at the grand old age of almost 42, there are still life lessons to be learned. This gives me great comfort. We should continually evolve I think and adjust and continue to 'move with the times' - old person phrase alert! 

Don't be too alarmed by the more serious tone of this post. Nothing wrong with a bit of learning and pondering in the early days of the year. Normal nonsense service will resume from tomorrow. Over and out. 

Wednesday 11 January 2017

TV Times: The Fall

Wow! Have you watched The Fall? We finally got around to watching the final series this last week and I'm not going to lie, I watched the very last 30 minutes hiding in my jumper - it was that terrifying...and yet absolutely bloody brilliant! 

In case you've not seen it, very briefly, Gillian Anderson plays a cop who is brought over to Belfast to solve a case. Jamie Dornan, yep him of that 50 Shades bullshizz fame, plays a serial killer. There's all kinds of other massively complex and scary characters, there's 3 series, and by the final one it's all about whether he will go to jail or not. I haven't really done a great job there of selling it to you, but trust me, you HAVE to watch it. 

The first and second series were honestly some of the best television I have ever seen. Both Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan are amazing and hugely compelling to watch. She's all tight skirts and silky blouses and withering glances, and he's all brooding and deeply dark and twisted with his dark brown eyes that are like pools you could drown in whilst living in absolute terror for your life. The chemistry between them is immense! It must have been incredible to be on set when they were filming...I wonder if they just used to burst out laughing sometimes to break the tension...? 

The third and final series was also amazing as you basically watch everything crumble in front of your eyes, not forgetting the nail biting penultimate episode, and the terror and shock as events finally unfold in the very last one. 

It's obviously not some light entertainment. It's serious stuff, but if you're into seriously excellent television then I can highly recommend. I don't binge watch very often anyway but I'm honestly not sure you could binge watch it without needing some sort of therapy afterwards - it's intense viewing. 

Have you seen it? Did you hide behind your jumper too? 

Tuesday 10 January 2017

Clashing

Tuesday is tricky. Come in from work, make tea, scoot the dog round the park, and then clash back out to go and build stuff at theatre. 

I'm taking the few minutes while the kettle boils for a flying cuppa to do a quick update. Nothing fancy, nothing deep, but I don't want to miss a day cos I'm ten days in and doing so well! 

Still coughing. 

Still sniffing. 

Today was tolerably better - I resisted the urge to hide my head in my shoulders - always a bonus. 

Onwards and upwards for the rest of the week! 

Thanks to everyone for reading so far! I'll be back tomorrow with a better post I promise! Bye-ee! 

Monday 9 January 2017

Grumbleweed

Everything was absolutely fine until I went to work today. I woke up early, the dog did super good on his walk under his new training regime - easy, easy - traffic was barely there...and then I stepped into the furnace. From that point onwards it was downhill. Cough cough cough, sniff sniff sniff, the cold of doom is not helped along by the furnace it would seem. Add in a giant spreadsheet full of tasks that literally took all day long and Monday was pretty shite. 

I am super bored of being such a grumbler. Grumble grumble grumble. Come on cold of doom, feck off and leave me be! I just want to feel healthy again!!

Even my lunchtime stroll, in the rain no less, did little to soothe me as I started coughing as soon as I stepped outside. I have had it! Had it! 

In other news, apparently we might be getting snow later this week - yasssssss! 

And we just went food shopping and bought new slippers that are frankly the most fluffiest, warm-iest, granny-iest things you may ever see. And I don't care! Warm feet for liiiiiiiiiiiife! 

Over and out. Grumble grumble. 


Sunday 8 January 2017

Freezer Sunday and feeling human

I feel like we need to start with a hallelujah! For the first time in about 12 days I actually feel like Claire again. Woo-flippin-hoo! Don't get me wrong, Queenie's cold is still lingering, I'm still coughing and going through more tissues than your average human, but I don't look so much death warmed up anymore and I definitely don't feel death warmed up. I actually felt a tiny sparkle today. Man did that feel good! Even my hair looks less ill! I'm hoping out of the other side is in sight and that it wasn't some sort of weird feel good day before a set back. Fingers crossed! 

I think it's safe to say that you guys will be happy to see the back end of it too! So much moaning to start off my year in the life - pah! 

All in all, Sunday was a pretty good day. I spent most of the morning in the kitchen, which is one of my favourite places to be. About once a month I go and do a big meat shop (vegetarians, look away now!) and then I spend a few hours making lots of different meals out of it all. Today I made up 4 servings of chilli, some yummy meatballs and a couple of spicy burgers. I also used up some veg that was in danger of being thrown out to make some tasty butternut squash and sweet potato soup, and then two black bananas were turned into a banana and chocolate chip slice. Yum-mo! 

The freezer food thing works really well for us as it means that we get to eat home cooked meals that can be heated up super quick when we don't have time to linger over dinner. I think it's that frugal upbringing of mine shining through, but my mam taught me well and I can make some basic ingredients go a long way! And knowing that I have a tasty dinner waiting for me at home helps me get through the day sometimes! Girl is ruled by her stomach, completely and utterly. 

I also finished one book and started in on The Goldfinch. It's mighty at 834 pages! I'll let you know the verdict at the end, whenever that might be. 

I also finally saw my parents, after avoiding them since Christmas so that they didn't get the evil cold. It was nice to catch up with them, chit some chat, put the world to rights, the usual parents get-together. 

And now I'm off to watch the penultimate episode of series three of The Fall. I read somewhere that the last two episodes are genuinely terrifying so I've got my cushion ready to hide behind! 

Until tomorrow...

Saturday 7 January 2017

The Queen's Cold

My sister told me this morning that they're calling "the evil cold that will not die" The Queen's Cold. This is because poor Queenie was so sick over the Christmas period that she had to miss church and lots of other public duties. You know what, I really don't blame her. I for one wouldn't want to get all gussied up in my finery, wearing my best hat, just so you could go and cough and splutter all over everyone. Plus, she's like 90 and this evil cold makes you feel like crap at 41 so I would imagine by 90 you probably just want to stay in bed in your flannelette nightie. Get better soon, Ma'am. 

My sister also told me it lasts for 3 weeks. There is not an emoji in the world that conveys my reaction to this information. Cheers, sister dearest. 

Coughing, sneezing, whole body hurting, and repeat for the full day. 

We ended up getting Domino's cos neither of us could muster the energy to actually create anything in the kitchen that would be edible. 

The whole household are now incredibly sleepy and might as well just declare it bed time. Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow. Nite nite. 

Friday 6 January 2017

On Friday we try...

That should actually read Friday was trying. I'm so bummed that I'm starting out my year of blogging in this negative nelly state but this EVIL COLD THAT WILL NOT DIE is really getting me down. And anyone who knows me in real life knows this is so not me. I felt so rubbish about it all today that I almost started crying on the way back to my car tonight. This is not a good way to start 2017. Good job I didn't go into it with all these resolutions and positive sunbeams shining out of my arse type posts, eh? 

So yep, today sucked. Big style. 

I came home, I may have ranted about it for a good ten minutes. Not proud. 

We decided to go and get fish and chips for tea, at the beach, in the dark. Call me a weirdo but this actually made me feel tonnes better! 

Now I just need to actually feel physically better. I can honestly say, that I haven't felt this rubbish since I had shingles a couple of years ago. As Dave commented the other day, it's really knocked you for six this one. This is a very northern saying but pretty much sums up how it has affected me - I look like death warmed up, I FEEL like death warmed up and every time I cough my whole body hurts, which is quite a lot of the time. Ho flippin' hum. You, evil cold, are an evil bastard (excuse my swearing) and it's about time you effed the off out of my body! Rah rah rah! 

Sunbeams shining out of my arse time? At least it's the weekend! Woop woop! 

Thursday 5 January 2017

Evil cold vs evil week

I've got two options for today: either I tell you about the evil cold that WILL NOT DIE but this will involve a whole lot of moaning about how all I do is cough cough cough and sniff sniff sniff, or I tell you about my evil work week which has mainly involved a significant number of complaints and me wanting to bang my head against my desk repeatedly. The trouble is neither of these things are particularly appealing. Tricky. 

I could tell you about the party instead! So much more interesting. So Dave is going to be really old next week, like properly old, and in order to celebrate we're having a little family gathering. I can't say too much as I know that he reads the blog and I don't want to give away all the good stuff, but suffice it to say there is a whole heap of exciting stuff going on and I'm starting to get really excited now! Mainly for the balloons (I can safely write about this as he knows there will be balloons) cos I love balloons! Love them! And I'm going to get those massive number ones that might not even fit in my car - yasssssss! 

Balloons for life! 

Evil cold begone! 

Evil week can do one at the same time! 

Over and out. 

Wednesday 4 January 2017

Bookshelf: 3 giants!

I'm not calling this a challenge as such, but I decided that this year I have to read these three books: 


Partly I think it's because I actually bought them. New. They're not out of the library, they're not borrowed from anyone else, they're brand spanking shiny and new. And all very large. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a little bit intimidated by them. Also very indecisive - I can't choose which one to tackle first! 

I picked up the Kate Atkinson and the Donna Tartt in one single shop - I know! What was I thinking? Other than being massively swayed by the fact that I have loved every other book that both have written, of course. 

As for the third, I've seen/read/heard very good things about it and decided to give it a try. Without realising quite how large it is. Maybe people who recommended it read it on Kindle so it didn't seem quite as...hefty? 

Anyway, decisions decisions. I tried putting it out on social media to see which might get the most votes but the comments are all over the place too! Maybe the best way will be to mix them up, close my eyes and just pick one! 

I'll keep you posted...

Tuesday 3 January 2017

Working girl

Wow that 6.30 alarm was HARD! Especially when I'd woken myself up just an hour or so before with the strange rattling noise coming from my body which has something to do with the cough/cold of doom, but I did it! I dragged myself out of bed and set about the day. 

A beautiful but challenging walk in the frosty, sparkly streets. That dog will pull...and we live on the top of a bank...which means walking down the bank...and fear of falling over - eep. No falling today. 

Work. Cough. Work. Cough. You can see where this is going. 

Two people asked me if I was okay. Like are you really okay? One of them was my big boss. I said it sounded worse. Truth. 

Went out for lunch and ate stupid amounts of pastry. Not so good, but the tarte was very fine! Pats self on back, I have prepared my lunch for tomorrow already. What? Who am I? 

A dreamy sunset over the skies of Boro that was absolutely worth leaving the office for without a coat or a cardigan...

A food shopping trip from hell as I did the shop, cough, shop, cough thing. All the while pulling up my tights that have been falling down all day. Valuable life lesson: tumble dryers and tights do not mix. You're welcome. 

Tonight we're off to theatre. And so it begins. 

Cough, cough, cough. 

Over and out. 

Monday 2 January 2017

Packing away Christmas / tidying and sorting

Back to work tomorrow - boooo! But I think one of the easiest ways to ease yourself back in is to have Christmas all packed away, even though the house looks so bare and sorry for itself when all the decorations come down. It took us most of the morning but by lunchtime we were all done. The walls in the hall have seriously suffered from where we stuck the cards up, oopsy, but we have big plans this year and the hall is the first in the big plans so those marks will be gone, sometime very soon hopefully! Super organised, we even remembered to pack away the outside lights - yay! And, the best thing of all, the boxes are back up in the attic too - woop! *pats self on back*

Devil's cold upate: still coughing, still sneezing, can't seem to do too much or I have to sit down and wheeze a few times. Great start to the new year...having said that if I see one more thing talking about "eating clean" I might just up-chuck all my snot all over. I hate the phrase clean eating, as it basically implies that if you eat any other way then you are clearly a filthy, dirty food monster who will implode and take down the health service with you as you go with all your demands. What's wrong with saying that you are eating well - making sure that you get a good balance of all the necessary things, doing your best to squeeze your 5-a-day in and not judging on anyone if they take some time to enjoy some cake and a hot chocolate here and there. I think that right there is balance, just saying. 

Moving back on track...

Once the tree came down, there was some sort of idea of tidying and sorting up the dreaded wooden drawers. These drawers become magnets for everything that we don't have a home for and eventually they overflow, we end up with too much of something we don't need (7 rolls of sellotape?!), stuff gets bought, can't be used and then receipts are lost and can never be returned or exchanged, it's like hoarders corner! So I did some tidying. And sorting. I found lots of money in strange currencies and about a zillion tiny euro coins that might actually amount to enough for a baguette and a few macarons if we ever get to go to France this year (cross everything!) It's like Spring came early or something with all this cleaning! I'm not quite sure what's come over me! 

One last evening of dossing about and doing nothing before the work thing starts all over again. Ho hum. I'm trying really hard to embrace the idea of new year, new opportunities, new exciting things...but being lazy is sooooo nice! 

More worryingly, Dave is cough-cough-coughing. Let us hope this isn't leading to the devil's cold. One person with said cold is bad enough, but two? A plague on both your houses! Or both your heads, as it were. 

Over and out. 

Sunday 1 January 2017

One!

Starting with the obvious - Happy New Year! I hope your new year was fabulous and sparkly and all kinds of fun! 

Mine was sneezing. And coughing. I sneezed so violently it went on my shirt. And I'm pretty sure that after wiping my nose I managed to wipe it all over my face too. Yeah, that was not such a sexy moment...I was in bed by 10pm and didn't even wish Dave a happy new year until I woke up this morning. In a different bed because I don't want him to catch this awful cold. 

Day one - welcome to reality! Ha! If we're going to do this one year, one blog a day thing, I can already tell you that there will be reality in there. It won't all be glamour and sparkles you know! 

Today has mainly involved lazing on the sofa, with occasional movement towards the kitchen for more snacks. I briefly (finally!) went and moved the plants out of the bath that have been there for about a week, declared one of them totally dead (may he rest) and then promptly went back to the sofa cos it had all just been a bit much. I'm wearing no make up, even my hair looks ill, it's definitely not going to be one of my ten best days in terms of style. 

But we're here. 

Day one. 

The congestion is slowly starting to clear, or is that just the drugs? 

I have no idea if this insane idea I came up with the other night will actually happen. I'm pretty certain that there will be days when the blog will be the last thing on my mind, but at the moment I'm really feeling it! I hope you'll join me for the journey. It would be fabulous if we met a few new people along the way so feel free to share it with friends...I have even considered tweeting a link...too much? Too scary more like! 

I've decided to label it as "year in the life." 

Onwards and upwards! Same time tomorrow...?