catch-up

It seems an absolute age since I have had a chance to write here…and not through laziness but the complete opposite.  I have never been so busy!

At home, it’s been pretty chaotic.  The Girl has finally had her cast off, exposing her little white arm – and it’s been healing fine.  The week before she had it off, I took her round to her boxing club to ask whether they felt she’d be able to start up – and they said “It will be great for her to come, help with the healing”, so she actually went back on Monday – the day before she had her cast off.  she was so happy to go AND she was top of the class that day too, so she was doubly happy.  they were really pleased to have her back, showing up all the boys that are a year or so older than her

I’ve also been racing around the country as I was preparing (and then attending) the annual conference for the Association of Charity Shops at Keele University.  Preparation for that meant trips to Dorking and Hockley and a hell of a lot of hard work.

And then manning a stand for two days, attending an awards dinner and doing a LOT of demos of my new venture (which went down very well!).  I’ve worked in the charity retail sector for around 20 years now, and although it doesn’t sound very interesting, I am extremely passionate about it all, and I now know so many people that attend events like that it was just a big social jolly once I was there!  as for anything, it’s the journey that’s tedious, but the arrival is a relief.

Something else that has taken up a lot of my time is the fact that my dad has been very poorly for over  a month now.  He has a massive problem with his back, and he can barely walk.  He finally managed to get an MRI scan when I was at my friend’s wedding and they have found that he has swollen nodules that have appeared on his spine, and one of them is pressing directly into his sciatic nerve – so he is in constant agony.  He is currently waiting for an appointment with a consultant.

This has the added difficulty that my mum doesn’t drive, they live in the middle of nowhere and my mum refuses to order groceries online as she simply has to squeeze everything before she buys.   So obviously I have been going over there and helping out as much as possible.

Also, it is the last couple of weeks of The Girl being at primary school, so we have had the whole school transition thing going on.  Attended Parent Interviews, Open Days, Transition Day as well as the usual primary Parent Review, Sports Day etc etc.  We have another one coming up on Thursday to see them get awards at Leyton Orient for a special scheme she was picked for and did for 10 weeks.  She’s also had things going on with Guides and is away at Guide Camp this weekend – funnily enough the one I used to go to as a Brownie/Guide which was one of the weirdest things as it’s about 4 roads away from my parents!

So, a good excuse for not having been around very much, I think.  I have a couple of reviews to write today as well, and I also want to add to my articles on Fortitude.

Maybe my chilling is still going to be busy, LOL

catching up (part 1)

Although busy, I'm happily juggling life

I haven’t made an entry for a while, but this hasn’t been down to nothing much going on.  I don’t FEEL like I’ve not had much time to myself, but I definitely haven’t been round online as much as usual – and I definitely haven’t had a chance to go on Twitter etc from work as everything’s stepped up a gear recently.

This is because a project I’ve been heading up and working on since August last year is finally going to be launched next month – so there’s a real flurry of stuff going on.  But it’s all good.  It’s busy, but I don’t feel stressed.

That’s very much unlike my old job where I was busy, under-appreciated, had huge expectations, seemed to spend all my time in meetings or working parties talking about all the work that should be done and never seeming to have the time to do it between meetings and working parties!  I felt so stressed by it, and hardly felt like anything I did was even noticed.  A total waste of a day most of the time.

But my old job, the reasons I left and the fact that I am so happy now is a totally different post!

So, I have a long list of things that I have been up to, or that have been on my mind since my last entry, and I will slowly be working my way through them over the next couple of posts – as I’ve mentioned before, I need to get these things down so that I can get them out of my head and feel more relaxed about everything

On Sunday, we had Mother’s Day as my mum was finally back from her annual month-long holiday.  so we took my parents to The Dick Turpin, which is a Miller & Carter steakhouse.  It was actually really nice.  i wouldn’t bother going there if I didn’t fancy a steak, but I have to say, their steaks are absolutely wonderful.  The Man was happy as he’d asked for his T-Bone rare, and that’s exactly how he got it – he’d be happy if you just wiped the cow’s arse and slapped it on a plate.  I’d gone for medium-rare, as a lot of places I’ve been to don’t seem to be able to do medium and it comes medium-well.  however, this time, my sirloin was a perfect medium-rare and at first I wished I’d asked for exactly what I’d wanted.  After the first few bites, I forgot my slight squeamishness and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Their fries are absolutely gorgeous – crisp, fluffy and yummy.  Their coleslaw is also great – my mum makes fantastic coleslaw, and I have a real issue with ‘bought’ slaws that don’t have enough carrot and are smothered in watery, vinegary white yuck.  this was the exact opposite – but there was nowhere near enough of it.

One of their ‘things’ is serving you a quarter of an iceberg lettuce with a choice of dressings.  I don’t really get this, but it was fine – the dressing was nice enough and the lettuce was fresh and crisp.  The Girl definitely liked it!

The Man had also made my mum’s favourite – preserved lemons in a couple of kilner jars.  So we’re definitely in the good books now.

I am now getting distracted as I am listening to the budget while I’m typing, and they’ve degenerated into a bunch of rowdy school kids!

too many thoughts

I seem to spend half my day thinking “I should really stick that down in my blog” and then never getting around to posting it, because I run out of time, and by the time I remember, it’s no longer fresh in my mind, or the moment has just passed.

I need to write the last part of my gig from Thursday night, I need to write up my review of Blacklands, and I want to write up about the trauma that we had with The Girl on Thursday and the evil bints in her class again.

I also want to write the conversation that I overheard this morning, which once again made me life at her sheer ingenious at arguing her point, but I have been really busy at work today and I’m hoping that the exact words said wont go out of my head before I get home tonight!

We should know in the next day or two whether she’s got into the school that we’re hoping for.  I’m keeping everything tightly crossed, as it’s going to be a bit difficult if she hasn’t!  I know my dad will start harking on about appealing, and getting a lawyer etc etc etc.

So, this entry has turned into more of a to-do list than anything else…and I had better start doing!!

(And I haven’t even told Gareth which ‘celeb’ I snogged yet!)