Eurovision...

As Jonny and Mandy had to be away when Eurovision was on, we came up with the plan that we'd record it and have our Eurovision party a week late. Now the only problem with this plan was that it was rather tricky to ensure that none of us found out the results in the mean time.Luckily only 1 of us heard the result - and then when they heard that song concluded that as it was so rubbish they must have been lied to!

We had a really funny night - aided by the fact we played this drinking game. Although it'll come as no surprise to anyone that both Mark and Jonny spent much time chuckling to themselves but saying things like "He's bound to wink in a minute - he looks like a bit if a winker if ever I saw one...", and I've never known a group of people get so excited about a ky change in a Eurovision song before... Anyway, it was highly entertaining and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Instead of the traditional party food I made 2 huge lasagnes - here's what Jonny looks like after consuming his own weight of baked pasta! :)


The organised fun for this year was bug rocks - here are our works of art...


I think we could take on the decorated rocks at the Otley Show any day...

How posh am I?

This afternoon I had an appointment with Sarah, the personal shopper / fashion adviser at John Lewis. My wardrode desperately needed a make over, and I generally hate shopping so thought I'd give it a try.

Well, I can honestly say it's fantastic. It's a free service (Debenhams and Selfridges also offer a similar service), and you can go just for help with one outfit, or as in my case, when you need lots of things.

After a 10 min consultation to discuss type of clothes I was looking for, the colours and styles I like / dislike etc, she set off round the store with a rail to select things for me to try whilst I was left to relax with a coffee and some maazines. If you prefer you can go round the store at the same time to pick out things you'd like to try, but I thought that if I was there I'd be less open to trying styles I'd not normally go for so it'd best just to get her to pick stuff out.

She came back with the rail filled up, and then based on seeing how the things she'd chosen fitted and styles that suited me, she then went back with a second rail. Sarah was so friendly and helpful, and based on what I was trying would pop back into the store to get something in a different size or colour, or to get some beads to accessorize, or some shoes etc.

I have come away with so much stuff (although it's not obligatory to buy anything), and you even pay in her suite area so no queueing or having to mix with the 'common' shopper at all! Fab! And hopefully I won't need to go shopping again for months. Hurrah!

Stupid travel agent of doom...

I got to Madrid airport all ready to check in to come home. I queue up. I get to the check in desk. The man scratches his head in a perturbed fashion. When did I book the flight he asks? What is my booking reference? These are questions one doesn't normally get asked at an Easyjet desk.

I fish out my reference, and only then notice that the date of my return flight was Wednesday. Today is Thursday. I curse the travel agent that booked my flights using a vast array of swear words. I then think I did ought to just check my emails that I asked them to book the right day before I get toooooo cross with them. I boot up my computer, and go back to cursing the travel agent.

As my laptop takes 3 years to boot I'd in the meantime gone to the sales desk to buy a ticket for today. "Oh dear" says the man, "today's flight is full..."

They won't know if there's a no show until the check in desk closes in 40 minutes, and being Easyjet there's no standby list to get your name on. I also phone to the (retarded) travel agent and see how else I can get from Madrid to Manchester at 5pm on a Thursday evening.

The check in for the Liverpool flight closes and (apparently) everyone turned up. But there is a flight to Gatwick leaving in 40 minutes and I can buy a seat on that. I check that I can get on the BA Gatwick - Manchester shuttle, and buy my new ticket, which being a last minute Easyjet purchase is about the same cost as a flight to the moon.

I go to check in, and there is a group 4 of irate people wanting to know why there wasn't an announcement that the Liverpool flight check in was closing as they were in the line. Grrr I think - thieving Esayjet and their lying ways of doom - why couldn't I have had one of their seats?

So, I get through security etc, the flight is due to leave in 15 mins. The incoming flight is yet to arrive so we've no plane. I start to panic as I have a relatively short connection in Gatwick, especially as my bag isn't checked right through and I have to change terminal... We eventually depart for Gatwick an hour late. Marvellous I think, I'll be in an airport hotel for the night.

As it happens we made up a lot of time on the flight, and my bag is one of the first off, so I get checked in for the next flight with enough time to grab some dinner, and keep one eye on the screen for my gate number. That's weird I think - we are due to take off in 30 mins and still no gate... Hmmm. Eventually a notice comes up - delayed by 90 mins. Nice.

Again we make up some time on the flight. The pilot announces this as we get to the gate at Manchester in a very chuffed fashion. Then 2 mins later announces that any time we gained we will now lose as they can't find steps to fit the plane...

It's only taken 10 hours to get home. I'm really looking forward to my trip to Barcelona next week. (Although I have already double checked I'm booked on the right flights!)

Pringles gone...

I lasted until 20:05, which I thought was quite impressive.

Miserable in Madrid :(

So, I flew over here on Easyjet today - which wasn't too bad other than I was amongst the last group to be called to board so ended up in a really rubbish seat. Speedy boarding is going to be purchased before my next trip in a couple of weeks.

Then I get to my hotel, which is nice enough, but right in the middle of a business park so nowhere nearby to go to. So I'll have to eat in the hotel restaurant - which is ok except it doesn't open until 20:30! Grrrr... And I'm starving - that teeny tiny sandwich I had in Liverpool airport is soooo long ago now.

I thought I could pass the time until the restaurant opens by playing a bit of WOW to distract me from my hunger. But then remembered I only have my rubbishy work laptop here which isn't up to the job, and not Mark's lovely shiny spare laptop which is a gzillion times better and is now my official WOW machine. :(

I'm trying to ignore the temptation to eat the pringles in the mini bar...

Busy Bank Holiday

For once we actually had plans! Blimey!

First off Chris and Liz came to babysit for us on Friday evening so we could go out for curry with Jonny and Mandy, plus a few of friends and family around for her party BBQ on Saturday.

Then on Saturday we were at the Hills for the afore mentioned BBQ. All 3 of us went round early doors, and then Mark and Tully came home around her bedtime and I stayed on and partied.

On Sunday we drove to Yeadon to stay with Chris and Chrissy. It was really lovely to see them, particularly after Tully went to bed. We used to see them for overnighters regularly before Tully, but only seen them in the day accompanied by small child since so it was really nice to be able to just catch up in a 'grown up' way later.

On Monday Chrissy's family and friends arrived for a BBQ to celebrate her birthday and a bit of a bash.

Lots of fun but I'm exhausted now. I need another bank holiday weekend to recover. Sadly I'm off to Madrid tomorrow for the first part of my 3 week Spanish tour. No rest for the wicked. :(

It's been a while...

Well, it's been some time since I posted. Although that's partly due to being hugely busy but with very very dull stuff.

Since the last post Mark has been away to the States a couple of times (Seattle and Philly), I've been away a couple of times (Philly and Frankfurt). Last week was the first time we were both at home all week for 8 weeks, and by some miracle we are both at home next week too. Although it all goes a bit pearshaped after that again as I have 3 consecutive weeks with trips to Spain. Nice!

The only real highlight in amongst all the dullness was last Sunday when Vics and Fraser popped by on Sunday on their way home from visiting some friends in Ramsbottom. As it was a bit rainy we went to the Lowry, had lunch in Pizza Express and a quick wander around in the Imperial War Museum of the North. It was a little odd to see them for such a short time, but I'm really looking forward to our trip to Brighton stay with them in June.

Places I've been...

I liked the 'Places I've been' map on Jonny's blog so thought I'd try it myself. I have been to 24 coutries, 10% of the world.

create your own visited countries map

Mark beats both Jonny and I though with 12%... Show off! I'd love to see what % someone that has really travelled like Andy Turton would come up with though!


There's a similar thing for US states. I've only visited 15 - a measly 29%.

create your own visited states map

No big surprise, Mark beats me there too with 52%...

Eurovision is coming!

I know it's sad but I love Eurovision! Whilst even I am not tragic enough to watch tonight's 'choose a song for the UK' show it has made me get excited about the real thing. It's on the 12th May if anyone is wondering...

Holiday!

We decided that this year we are going to finally brave venturing abroad with Tulster! Are we mad? Quite possibly!

I'd heard about this group called Kinderhotels a while back but thought nothing more about them. But after we'd decided we wanted to go to the Alps this summer I thought they were worth investigating. All of them sound good to go to with kids (obviously) but being the kind of person I am the 5 smileye ones sounds the best and probably where I'd want to go!

Also I'd rather fancied going to Zell am See for several reasons. It's on Lake Zell which is of drinking water quality and good for swimming in, but is also right in the mountains to give the best of both worlds. There's also a glacier nearby so Tully can go and see 'proper' snow (and we might sneak in a day summer skiing?!). And in addition to all that it's a town rather than a teeny tiny village which I thought would be better for finding things to do with Tulster.

Anyway, imagine how pleased I was to discover there is a 5 Smiley Kinderhotel in Zell am See - Hotel Hagleitner! Now that must be fate - so who am I to argue... So it's all booked - yey! And even better - flying with ThomsonFly we each get our outbound flights for £1.36 and the return for £11.52! A bargain! :) Job done.

I mostly thinks it looks wonderful, but there is a very small part of me that thinks it looks just like hell on earth and rather like a glorified Butlins! Yikes! (And as an aside, how much of a snob am I? : Actually, maybe it's best if nobody answers that...)

In the US

Well, it's the first week of a rather hectic month or so for Mark and I. Over the space of the next 5 weeks Mark and I will partake of 4 trips to the US between us.

I'm here this week doing a bit of a whistle stop tour - in Chicago last night for 1 night, then travel to Philadelphia today for 2 nights before going home again. I got a bit lucky though!

I had to decide if I wanted to do a 2 leg journey on the outbound or inbound leg - I opted for outbound as let's face it - when you are coming home you just want to get home as quickly as possible. So yesterday I was booked onto a flight to Philadelphia, and then an internal one on to Chicago. Imagine my dismay when I overheard (as I was waiting in the longest ever check in queue known to man) that the Manchester - Philly flight was delayed. By 6 hours!!!! In fact the plane had only just departed Philly on the inbound trip! Clearly this meant I'd certainly miss my planned connection, and quite possibly the later ones too! I left my (much coveted and half an hour in) place in the check in queue to pop to customer services to see if they could reroute me.

Initially the lady told me as I would still just make the final connection of the day I'd have to stick it out (would mean I'd arrive in Chicago around midnight instead of the planned 17:10). I must have looked rather stricken as she then worked it out again and said that the connection time was about 45 mins and maybe a little tight, and that she'd try getting me on the direct BMI flight. They weren't answering, but the girl next to her said she's spoken to them just before, they had 9 seats, and she was just issuing some tickets now so she decided to do the same for me! Good job too, because just after they'd been issued someone did manage to talk to BMI who were clearly kicking off that they been sending so many people over as they now didn't have enough dinners. Eventually they were persuaded to take the people with tickets already issued (me!) but wouldn't take any more! Yey! So I ended up arriving at about 12:30 instead! Woohoo!!!! And I still get my direct flight home on Thursday too.

The only slight problem was that when i went to check in today it transpired that instead of just cancelling my outbound trip somehow they'd cancelled the whole itinerary! After much much faffing, the nice man in Chicago managed to get me rebooked onto both today's and Thursday's flights, so I get to go home still after all. Yey!

Amy's 30th Masquerade Party

A slightly belated post this.. On Saturday Jonny, Mandy and I went to Amy's birthday party. It has to be said I was slightly apprehensive beforehand as a) I hate anything even vaguely verging on fancy dress and b) we weren't going to know anyone else there!!! Well, other than Stu and May themselves that is...

However in the end it was really good fun. We drank lots, ate lots, danced lots, and I realised I knew more people than I thought as I also knew Dawn and James as we'd camped with them at the V festival a couple of years back.

I didn't take my camera, but Jonny has posted some rather fuzzy photos he took on his phone here...

Tully's new bed

I've been wanting to move Tulster to a proper bed for a little while - she's definitely been ready for a couple of months now and asking for a proper bed. But as I knew she'd have to go into a cot when we went to Shropshire I've kept her in hers here as I didn't think she's want to be demoted back to cot again. Anyway, today is the day!

Here are a couple of before shots...



And here are some after ones. After much deliberation I decided to keep her in the box room rather than lose the guest room, but as it's just too short to take a single bed this means she's gone into a toddler bed. Still, it should buy us a year or two to get ourselves sorted out and moved into a new house...



And I thought I should put a 'small' collection of toys in place ready for her!


I was a bit worried she'd be running round the house now she has free reign, and I fully suspect I'm talking far too early but so far she went to ned ealier than normal with no fuss as she was so excited, and went stright in and straight to sleep! Yey! Wait for the post tomorrow now where I complain she came through every 2 mins from 1am - 5am... :)

Birthday Weekend

It was my birthday on Monday, and to celebrate we went away to Shropshire with Jonny and Mandy, and Stu and Amy. I had lots of fun, but it has to be said that far too much of the weekend was taken up with playing Warioware: Smooth Moves on the Wii than can be good for anyone! Very funny, although unlike PS games it gets significantly harder as more gin in consumed... Here's Jonny admirably demonstrating the Mohawk form. Probably best not to ask... :)

That there dinner...

I've found a picture of my table where you can see an example of my outrageously large surf and turf meal at the Stock-Yard! YUMMMMM! (Although this picture doesn;t represent the huge starters and additoinal side orders we also had!)

Back home

Well, it's been an interesting week. The hotel was as mad as it looked, several large linked themed areas all with gigantic glass roofs. It was an amazing piece of engineering which I swayed between liking and thinking hugely vulgar throughout the time there. The convention centre alone felt a similar size to the NEC too. Luckily my room was close to the convention centre so I only had a 5/10 min walk to breakfast, and then a further 10 mins to the meeting room. Some people were 30 mins from breakfast (which given the meeting started at 8 meant a very early start to get there in time!)

One evening we were taken out to for a meal at Stock-Yard Restaurant. I (along with several others) chose the surf and turf option as I was struggling to decide between steak and lobster. It was amazing - to the point that people with cameras took photos of it. If I can get hold of a copy I'll post it sometime...

Another evening there was a mass exodus to the Wild Horse Saloon where we were all given cheapo bandanas and cowboy hats and enjoyed participating in line dancing! Nice!

All in all it was one of the more enjoyable meetings I've been to in recent times, but it's still good to be home.

Off to Amerima

Tomorrow I head off to Nashville to the sales meeting. Yes, that's right - on a Saturday - hrumph!!! We are staying in the amusingly named Gaylord Opryland Hotel, and it looks absolutely insane!

It is HUGE, has 2881 bedrooms, and bizarrely also has indoor gardens, waterfalls and you can even "take a scenic boat tour down our winding indoor river". How an indoor river can be scenic is anyones guess. Still, we have some free time on Sunday (how unusual at these things) so maybe I'll get to try it out...

New Washing Machine continued...

Well, the new washing machine turned up as promised. Eventually 2 days later we got round to fitting it and it is now fully operational. Except, when we came to put the cupboard door back on the flipping attachment bits are in a completely different flipping place to the old one! Grrrrrr! Why the bleeding heck don't the stupid manufacturers make things the same????? And it's not going to be easy to make it fit, as there's a big hole in the door where the screw will need to go to fit for this one.

Time to call in the professionals. (Plus, I need to get an electricain in too whilst we are about it as half our house is in darkness - 3 light fittings aren't functional. And it's not just that I need to put new light bulbs in either before some cheeky person puts a comment up to say as such.)

Fish Pie

Tully and I made a really yummy fish pie to help us celebrate New Year. It looked really good so I thought I'd take a picture of it! As an aside it tasted even better than it looked.

New Washing Machine

Typical! Every Christmas some major electrical item seems to break, and this year it is the turn of the washing machine. Now the problem with that is that we have a stupid integrated one, which whilst looks very tidy is just a pain! Firstly there is incredibly limited choice (both in appliance and shop to buy them from), and then there's the whole having to fit the cupboard door on part too!

When we bought the house the previous occupant wanted to take all the existing appliances with them meaning we were in the market for fridge, freezer, washing machine and dishwasher, but could I find anyone to sell them to me??? None of the high street electrical shops did, and nobody I asked knew where I could buy them from. Eventually someone recommended I try Range Warehouse which proved successful.

So this time I didn't even bother looking around we just went straight back to Range today and bought this Indesit WD12X.

Lazy couple of days

Mark and I both finished work on Wednesday, and have enjoyed a relaxing couple of days whilst Tully was in nursery yesterday and today.

Both days we had big lie ins which I'm counting even though I got up and took Tully to school before going back to bed. Yesterday after hearing so many good reviews we went to see Casino Royale. It was as good as I'd been told, and I really enjoyed it. I think it's my fav Bond film to date - certainly from the recent ones anyway.

Sadly today school finished at 2, so we had to look after our daughter ourselves this afternoon (cuh!) so we walked to collect her for a change, and stopped off at the park, before walking into Sale and then heading on home. Whilst in Sale we bought her a gingerbread Christmas tree, which due to it's solid nature kept her busy for the entire journey home, and she was still eating it 5 this evening! The most entertainment value we've seen out of 49p in a long time!

Productive Day!

I'm taking a couple of days hols as I seem to have loads left over that I lose at the end of this year. So far today has mostly been used in writing Christmas cards (almost done although not yet posted...!), and choosing some photos...

Now then, when Mark first moved into his houselet in Alty almost 9 years we picked out a couple of pictures to 'make do' until we found something we really liked, and again after decorating downstairs over 4 years ago we did the same thing for an extra picture (and this one is truely hideous - a £5 IKEA special that seems to reside in every ski chalet we've been to since!) The problem is we are never really sure what we like, and the second one is that many of our photos from recent times were only stored on the hard drive in the loft and, well, going up there to retrieve it required 10 seconds worth of effort!

Anyway I've spent much of the afternoon going through the archive of digital photos from the last few years, and finally picked out 3 examples from our hols in New Zealand to get enlarged. Just going through the 1300 (!) pictures from NZ took well over an hour, so since I went back as far a 2002 it took rather a lot longer. It was however a very enjoyable way to pass a few hours, and brought back some fantastic memories. There's so much I'd completely forgotten about!

(Actually the picture below isn't one of the ones chosen, but I do rather like it!)

Birthday plans!

I know, I know - it's ages away yet! But I fancied havig a weekend away with friends, which means I need to get them booked now! (Our friends seem to be incredibly busy these days - I find it hard to believe we ever had so much of a life even before Tulster!)

So, I've booked to go here for a long weekend, along with Jon and Mand, and Stu and Amy. I don't think it might be a bit too chilly to use the pool though!

It's Christmas!

Not come early as you might expect, but come very very late.

Our Christmas present last year from Jonny and Mand was a night out with babysitters thrown in! We finally got round to cashing it in last night... Liz and Chris came round to babysit (thanks!) and we went into Manchester for scrummy food and wine in Evuna. It was very tasty, and it was lovely to have a night out with the Hills. We really do need to make more effort to see all our friends than we do. Strikes me there's a good New Years Resolution in the making...

Prague

I've been in Prague for work this week. There was a bit of a mix up with hotels, and the one where my meeting was ended up being overbooked, so some of us got transferred to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for the same price.

It was REALLY lovely. I was given a room in the spa, which was just over the glass bridge in the photo here. There were 32" LCD tvs in both the bedroom and the bathroom, plus a DVD player. MAybe I just normally stay in rubbish hotels and this is normal for everyone else, but I was well impressed!

And, although it was a 20 minute walk to where the meeting was each way, it was over Charles Bridge and through the old town and really pretty. I'm exhausted now though, I need a rest this weekend.

Ummm

Upgraded my blog to the newer version. It seems to have got confused and think I'm Tully! Ho hum, no obvious way to sort it out at the moment but it's annoying me so I'll endeavour to fix it. :(

Films I've watched far too often!

Grosse Pointe Blank - I'm not sure why but this is a film I come back to again and again. I think it's because it's such a good combination of drama, comedy, romance and John Cusack! It's got to the stage though where both Mark and I pretty much know the script off by heart though, so maybe it's time to find a new film to take it's place. And even though we've almost worn the DVD out it's the film we've chosen to watch tonight out of the entire selection across all Sky Movies channels... Mmmm.






10 things I hate about you - even less sure why we watch this so often, but it is definitely worthy of mention when talking about DVD's we've nearly worn out. Although it's very much a teen movie, it has sligtly more depth than some as it's adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew set in a modern American high school. It's where I first came across Julia Stiles, and I have to admit I've since become a bit of a fan.




Moulin Rouge! - I love this! It's crazy, colourful, vibrant, funny, poignant, and (I think at least) very cleverly written. And stars Ewan McGregor!!!!! Richard Roxburgh is brilliant as The Duke; the 'Like a Virgin' scene cracks me up every time!


Bizarrely, with possibly the exception of Moulin Rouge, these wouldn't make it onto my list of top 5 films (I sense that could be a whole new blog entry sometime). But all are very enjoyable and worth a watch if you've never seen them.

New York part 1!

Mark and I went to New York for a long weekend to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary, leaving Tulster behind to be spoilt rotten by my parents! As we’d both been before and ‘done’ the main sights it was really lovely to relax and not feel obliged to run around doing lots of official sightseeing. Below is a selection of photos from the weekend!

Our hotel – the Westin New York Times Square – was really good, and in a really good location (until you want to walk about just as all the theatres kick out!)


On Friday evening we went for a wander around Chinatown – neither of us had ventured there before, and it’s definitely an area I’d recommend people go and have a look at. Still, the pre-requisite Starbucks on every corner (albeit in a Chinese style) means you never forget where you are! J



We had fabulous dinner in Joe’s Shanghai on Pell Street (well done to the Rough Guide for another excellent recommendation) – the pork soup dumplings (the house speciality) and the crispy spicy whole yellow fish were particularly good. On the walk back to the Subway we spooted Mark’s shop!


Last time I’d been to New York was prior to 9/11, so going to visit Ground Zero was the only thing on my list of things to do this visit. It’s a very sombre place – hard to believe we caught the subway down there last time…


A couple of the photos from the (very well done) memorial section captured my imagination – the expression on the man’s face in the centre really says it all.


How cool was that?

New York part 2!

It still seems to be messing up so I've published this in two parts to make sure I don't lose it all again!

The Staten Island Ferry - another first and quite frankly tight way to get good views of the harbour and skyline as it's free! We did the 'proper' tour last time of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, which was wonderful. I just wanted another look see of the views...


She never fails to impress me. Although I was a little relieved not to take the vertigoiferous traipse up the spiral staircase inside her this time... It did make my tummy go funny...


My favourite bit of Times Square - look at all those kisses! :) Pity Hersheys chocolate is so disgusting. (With the excpetion of cookies and cream, although I've not found it for ages! Does ayone know - have they stopped making it?)


We went for a look around the USS Intrepid - very interesting, but the video in particular was very well done.


Also included in the display is one of the BA concorde to look round - it's tiny inside!


We went for lunch at Katz's Deli - no photo's but it's the place where THAT scene from 'When Harry met Sally' was filmed. Scroll down towards the bottom on this web site - we sat one table to the right, just behind Harry...

Argh!

Just spent ages writing an entry on our trip to New York and it's just vanished for no good reason! I can't be bothered to write it all again now - will maybe have another go tomorrow... Grrrrr.

Maybe leaving Mark in charge of Tully is a bad idea?

So, as I said in my last post I've been away a bit recently with work. I think Mark is getting his revenge though. Whilst I've been away he has taught Tully a new 'What noise do xxx make?' question and answer... Mark says 'Tully, what noise do mummys make?', Tully answers 'Nag nag nag'... Mmmmmmm...

Off again...

As most people'll know I have to travel a reasonable amount for my job, and whilst some trips are better than others I generally enjoy the variety that going out and about brings. (I'm also very lucky that I have a husbad that has never ever grumbled about the fact that he is left at home holding the baby...) And normally traveling for work is within the working week which is fine.

However it feels that work is enchroaching somewhat into my/our family time at the moment. Last Sunday I had to fly to Sweden for 3 days and although the flight was quite late, by the time I'd sorted out getting packed and allowed extra time to check in given current travel restrictions, all of Sunday afternoon had gone. Then in the middle of last week I was instructed to book flights to go to the US office next week, flying on Bank Holiday Monday. So I have to be at the airport for 9 tomorrow morning . Nice.

Ok, grumble over. Especially as I've demanded next Monday off to compensate! :)

Hooray for Boston!

Whilst hanging about at Boston Station yesterday waiting for the (delayed) 16:06 train to Nottingham to arrive I spotted an advert for Stickney Farm Park. Sounds like a possible day out for some time in the future. Blimey, what's Boston coming to having tourist attractions and the like...? It certainly wasn't like that in my day!

As an aside, what does it say about my home town that the station had no shop, no cafe, no snack bar, or indeed anywhere where I might purchase a bottle of drink for the journey. But it did have a pub, which was surprisingly full for a Tuesday afternoon! Nice!

New York, New York!

I'm very excited. Mark and I decided we deserved a treat, so we've booked to go to New York for a long weekend for our wedding anniversary. Luckily Mum and Dad have once again volunteered to look after Tulster for us -I think that in their old age they forget each time the trauma that involves - so we can have a lovely relaxing time. Well, that's what Mark thinks anyway - I've already started planning... :)

We decided to splash out and stay here, which is within a block of Times Square so right in the middle of the action. Woohoo!

Poppy Wardle

Congratulations to Steve and Karen, who now have their very own monster going by the name Poppy! She already has her own blog so we can all keep up with her exploits here...

Oooooops!

I've just noticed how rubbish I've been at keeping my blog updated recently.

Part of the problem is I've been incredibly busy, and with borng things that aren't worth mentioning in the main. I've had several work trips to France, Germany, Ireland and around the UK for example. Dull dull dull...

But I suppose our holiday is worthy of comment. We went to a cottage just outside Robin Hood's Bay. The cottage was lovely, and in a really good little village that has everything we needed - swings, dogs, village shop and pub! What more could you ask for? :)

What else? Well, we've decided that a trip to Cornwall to see Sam, Mark's sister, is long over due so we've booked into a camp site nearby for a long weekend in August. We stayed there once before a couple of years back and it's a lovely site. Not sure if camping with an 18 month old is entirely a good idea though but I'm sure she'll love it. Not looking forward to the journey though - makes me think we should have gone when she was 6 months old and would have slept all the way rather than needing entertaining as she does now... I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try and be better at posting stuff in future!

Jo and AJ's Wedding

Last night I went to the party bit of Jo's wedding - sadly I never got round to taking ay photo's as I usually seemed to have a G&T in my hand... (If someone has a nice one let me know and I'll put a link to it here...)

Jo's dress was beautiful - she looked gorgeous! I didn't really get chance to talk to Jo much at all though - but I did catch up with lots of people I'd not seen for ages which was lovely, plus some others that I see foten at work but don't get to socialise with much these days.

Brian and Katy's Wedding

Today we had a lovely family day out at Brian and Katy's wedding, both of whom we've worked with for a number of years. As they already have 2 kids of their own the day was organised in a child and family friendly way. After the ceremony the kids had their tea brought out fairly soon after, which was perfect as it meant they all got fed long before anyone started to get grouchy.

Then there was a short time before our dinner, so we all wandered over to the crazy golf. Tully was funny as she didn't quite get why she couldn't go and grab the balls from the 'tee' and run off with them. Stu got quite excited at one point as he thought he'd score a hole in one using Tully power instead of any skill of his own!

Then, whilst the grown ups tea was being served the kids had their own disco downstairs, which seemed to degenerate into mostly chasing each other around. Tulster held her own and Lydia had to watch her back for a while, although I think Lydia came on top in the end! All in all it was a fab day out. I can only wonder at how the evening went when the grown ups disco started - we make a hasty exit before Tully got too tired and fed up...

TV!

I have to say I'm loving the new series of Green Wing. It's just so surreal, cleverly written and very funny. I'm saddened to discover that already we are almost halfway through. Equally the third series of Hustle was as entertaining as the pevious two, and it seems to be over almost before it's begun. It's a shame that our home grown tv series don't manage to produce the long series that seem to get made in the States, although i suppose something can be said for quality rather than quantity in this case.

Having said that, the second series of Desperate Housewives is proving to be as compelling as the first. And I am also enjoying My name is Earl. So maybe I can't criticise US tv too much...

Pie Dinner

I had a very tiring day at work today and just couldn't be bothered to cook. So we decided to have pie dinner! For those of you I've not told this to before our local chippy does pie, chips, peas, fired onions and gravy all for £2.1o! A bargain and very very tasty! Yum!
The only downside is that the pie is a Hollands one as favoured by chippys in the North West, and not a mighty Pukka pie as I was brought up with! Boo!

Easter Weekend

It was lovely to have an extended weekend, and spend some time with Tully and Mark. Everything seems to be a big rush these days, so it was lovely to relax and enjoy life for a change. Tully is starting to be fun now (no offense Tulster), is walking about, loving her new shoes that make a clumping sound as she stomps about, plus they mean we can let her wander round outside more now. She's also beginning to talk and communicate and for it to make some sense(!), and starting to understand us and react to what we say so we can send her off on little missions! Bless her! I was quite sad to have to go back to work :(

The photo was taken whilst we were hunting for eggs in the park, which was actually quite hard - I couldn't find any but luckily Mark managed to find some.

Langoustine

Yum! I forgot to mention that last week whilst in Paris we went out for a very tasty meal on the Wednesday night, and I was very pleased to see langoustine on the menu! I LOVE langoustine, but it's not often I get to eat them. The last time was when Mark ordered me some from www.langoustine.co.uk for my birthday a few years ago - everyone thought it was very funny when a bit freeze/chilled box turned up at work!

Saturday night sadness!

Oh dear. Chris and Chrissy came to stay tonight as they were going to a wedding at Old Trafford. Mark and I stayed at home, and thought we'd be ok to get away with playing a bit of WOW... Unfortunately they were getting a lift with Anna and Jim who wanted to get home to Otley fairly early to relieve their babysitter they got back rather earlier than we imagined. How embarrassed did we feel to be caught out being such saddos!!!! Even worse I was going through an instance with a few people and was on teamspeak at the time too!

Btw, I'm now level 43 which I'm very proud of, and even have a horse!

Paris

So, back from Belfast on Sunday evening, and off the Paris Monday morning. When we booked to go away for the weekend I was meant to be at home this week, but various events meant I switched my work travel around and had to leave again straight away. Poor Tully - she only saw me for a bleary eyed 10 minutes on Monday morning as we'd got home after she was in bed on SUnday, and I had to leave to catch my flight at 7am.

I've come to Paris to help us exhibit at Forum LABO. It's been quiet today - unfortunately for the conference organisers the French decided to strike today so not many punters turned up at all! Oh well, here's looking forwards to a busy day tomorrow.

Belfast

Once again it's been a little while since I posted. Firstly this is because for a while after the last post I had nothing to post about, and then I got busy again and haven't had chance!

So, somehow we managed to persuade Mum and Dad to look after Tully for a couple of days, so Mark and I decided we'd go and have a nice weekend break somewhere. Only we chose Belfast... Only kidding - we did have a nice time, although it has to be said there isn't LOADS to do in Belfast. We mostly just chilled out and did all the things we don't get chance to these days, like go to and sit in the pub for an afternoon, or go to the cinema. Speaking of which I highly recommend Inside Man, and can't discourage you enough from Date Movie...

I can also recommend the Oxford Bar and Grill, up above St Georges Market for a very nice meal indeed. The side order of crispy onions in particular was yum yum yum!!!

I may (or may not) post some photos when I get home again from my next trip away - see above... :)

Busyness!

Blimey, it's been a while since my last post (apologies) but I've been rather hectic for the last couple of weeks...

So, following on from the last post I had a BIG demo on the Wednesday, which went pretty well.

Then last weekend Vics came to stay - it was lovely to see her and we took the chance to leave Tully with Mark for a few hours on Saturday and hit the shops, We were both rather restrained though and didn't buy much too much! (Although we did buy matching tops... Not sure if that's a good thing...?)

Then this week I had a night out with Mel and Mandy on Wednesday - we went to Sokrates, a very good Greek restaurant in Sale, scoffed lots and lots of tasty food and drank much yummy red wine! Mr Goodridge was a star and offered (or was he told) to take Mand and I home too when he came to pick Mel up! So thanks John!!!!

Then last night Stu and Amy came round for tea. For some reason Tully wasn't at all sure about Amy but found Stu very entertaining... Strange child, I'd definitely be the other way round! Anyway, Amy helped bath her, and then we had a very enjoyable evening - although we did seem to watch more televised Poker than could possibly be considered ideal! Ho hum...

House Viewing

We went to look at a new housing development today, which is by the canal in central Sale. The house we looked at was a 4 bed town house, and was actually ok - I especially like the living room and kitchen floor. However the only plots that are left are 2 and 3, both of which have the TINIEST gardens ever, so we've ruled it out as a possibility. Ah well, it passed half an hour on a Sunday afternoon...

Going on holiday!

Yey! We've booked to go away in June for a week to this lovely looking cottage just outside Robin Hood's Bay. I've not been to the area for years so I'm really looking forward to it! Although not looking forward to puching Tully back up the hill on the way back from the beach again... :(

Random rant!

I've just seen an advert for McDonalds and it's reminded me of something I've wanted to rant about for ages but never quite get round to. And given it was McDonalds that sparked the rant I think most people will be surprised by where I go from here!

Why would anyone want to ruin a perfectly tasty burger by putting bacon in it! It's the just wrong and, quite frankly, in my opinion a filthy thing to do! Bleurgh! Yukky! It makes me feel ill just thinking about it. Bacon should be in bacon butties, burgers should be burgers. The 2 should never be combined!!!! So there!

Day out in Cardiff!

Well, what can I say? I had a lovely day on Saturday. Firstly I got up fairly early and drove to Cardiff - and had the most fantastic run ever meaning I got there in time to pop in and see Steph, Tim and Alex for a couple of hours. Alex is such a sweetie - very quiet and well behaved indeed. Here's a picture of him; Steph and Tim avoided the camera as neither were feeling photogenic following quite a rough night with Alex...


Then after a quick change I went to Michelle and Graeme's wedding. It really was very good indeed, and given it was February the sun shone out for them. Kirstie, one of Michelle's chemistry friends from Exeter (who has since had a total change of career into opera singing) sang Panis Angelicus whilst they went to sign the register - it really was very beautiful. Another of the highlights of the day has to be the first dance - they'd put together a full dance routine to a medley of tunes ranging from The Monkees, through The Proclaimers to Doris Day singing 'A guy is a guy'- it truely was a stroke of genius! Here's a selection of some of my favourite pictures from the day.

She'll kill me for this but I just love this is one - it's just sooo Michelle!


The boys, Bouncy (aka Chris) and Paul.


Michelle and Graeme surrounded by all the men! Didn't she do well for herself! ;)


Bouncy and Vicky - despite the rosy cheeks Chris is actually sober as he was acting as chauffeur for us all for the night!


Paul, me and Kirstie, none of whom are remotely sober! ;)

Away to Cardiff

It's been a while since I've posted anything, for a combination of reasons. Firstly I've not had a great deal of interesting things to say, other than the stuff that's been going on Tully's blog anyway about her birthday etc. And also I've been a bit down in the last couple of weeks too and I don't want this to turn into a forum where I grumble about things. This whole being 31 thing has hit me hard - it's defintely not a good age...

But, I'm in a really good mood today as I'm heaading off tomorrow to Michelle's wedding who is one of my friends from Exeter. It's in Cardiff which is even better as it means I'll get chance to pop in and see Steph too, and finally meet her little boy Alex. I'll also get to catch up with a few other friends at the wedding that I've not seen since my wedding, plus a couple of other Exeter people I've not since since even before then. I'm really looking forward to it. The only downside is that because Tully wasn't invited it's meant that Mark has chosen to stay at home and look after her, as it's not long since we both abandoned her for a week when we went skiing. I'll just have to do enough partying for both of us then! :D

Birthday!

Today is my 31st birthday - how old is that? :( I had a fairly quiet day, mainly because we were recovering from our holiday, and having to get up at 3am UK time to come home. Mum and Dad had stayed overnight so I got one last mini lie in. Then Chris and Chrissie popped in to see us in the afternoon, and finally Jon and Mandy came round in the evening for a curry. Yum!

Still, Mandy got all the best presents though - we brought her tinned brussel sprouts (Spar best!) home from Val D'Isere! :D

Val D'Isere

Last week we went skiing in Val D'Isere, although our chalet ended up being in Le Fornet, a couple of km up the road. It was really good fun, and it was quite nice to have a week away from Tully (at least when it came to sleeping!)!!! Anyway, here's a few photo's from the week...

Grenoble Airport - the first time I've had to walk quite so far to the terminal from the plane! (Although it is closely rivalled by Chambery - must be a skiing thing...)


New goggles (very very good - didn't steam up ever, not once!!!!), and my fav skiing hat!


The outside of our chalet.


My only fall of the week! Which given the piste is, well, completely flat, is really rather embarrassing!!!! Oh well... But, as an aside, look how lovely and sunny it was! And it was pretty much like that all week which is a first. Usually there's at least 2 days of grey yukky weather.

How much!!!!

Looking at the state of the house, and the fact I am now working full time, I decided to investigate getting a cleaner today. And my general feelings have been 'How much!?!?!?!?'!

So far the quotes have ranged from £8.25 - £11 an hour. When we used to have a cleaner about 5 years ago we paid £5 an hour - how can it have gone up so much!!!! Everyone I spoke to today though were agencies - maybe I need to find little lady who works for herself instead... Or just give in and get the hoover out myself. Sigh... Actually no, I hate hoovering soooo much it's worth paying someone else, even it means we can't eat! :D

Desperate Housewives

Yey, I nearly forgot about the start of the new series of Desperate Housewives, but luckily happened to be watchng Channel 4 when it started! Phew!

I really enjoyed the last series, so I hope this one proves to be as good!

Home again.

Home again! And I suppose overall the week wasn't too bad. Surprisingly the highlight of the week was the team building event. It was incredibly well done, I felt I knew the people was grouped with much better afterwards, we learned lots of useful concepts, and, most importantly, it was FUN! Blimey!!!

Still, it's definitely good to be home!

In Florida

Ok, well I guess it's not been TOOOOO bad so far. I set off from home at 7am on Wednesday, and 17 hours later I arrived in my hotel room. The journey was pretty uneventful - got through immigration in Newark surprisingly quickly, and even had a friendly immigration officer too!

The highlight of the journey was getting transferred from the airport to the hotel in a super stretch Hummer limo - I haven't got a camera here as left it at home for Tully but Jon took some pictures so look out for some photos fom him at some point.

Overall the agenda has been mostly better than expected. And it's been really lovely to catch up with some people I've not seen for AGES! The lunches have been pretty good, but the rest of the food has been a little disappointing so far. I'm looking forwards to getting home though - I'm missing Tully and Mark loads. Still, only half a day left to go, and then the 17 hour journey home again... Ho hum...

Off to sunnier climes

Tomorrow I'm heading out to Florida for the annual global corporate wide sales meeting, which I managed to avoid last year as I was too pregnant to fly. (How smug was I?!?!?)

Anyway, whilst the hotel looks really nice, the agenda looks really dull, and not only that but it continues through Saturday meaning I don't get home until Sunday morning. I would say at least it'll be sunny and warm, but realistically the chance of us getting any free time to get out the hotel is very slim. Most days there is only a 30 min gap between the end of the meeting and the start of the organised evening entertainment... Oh, and the agenda seems to start at 6:30 in the morning! Oh joy...

Watch this space and I'll let you know if I'm just being a misery or if my doom and gloom is justified... :)

Going Skiing

Well, we've done it! We've been threatening mum that we're going to go skiing and leave Tully with her and dad for the week, and this week we've booked it! We are going to Val D'Isere for the week with Inghams, who are, in my opinion, by far the best ski tour operator of the main few. We know the resort, but as it's a last minute deal we get allocated a chalet on arrival. I'm very excited about it - although slightly worried I'm so unfit I'll be exhausted by the time I've walked to the chairlift! Let's hope we get put in this chalet where we can ski to and from the door! :)

Still, Mum will probably be more broken having to look after our monster for 8 days! I wonder how far through the week she gets before she gives in and sends her to nursery for the day so she can catch up on some sleep! :)

Home alone

This week Mark has gone to the Philly office for the week, so I'm left holding the fort here alone. (I don't feel too badly done to - I'm off to Florida next week and don't get home until Sunday so he has Saturday with her all day! :) ) She's been really good for me so far too which is a definite bonus.

I just have one question though. All week last week when we were on holiday she woke up ridiculously early each day and wanted nothing other than to play. Yet now I'm back at work all she wants to do is sleep in! Very annoying!

Happy New Year

Well, another year is over with. And another New Years Eve, which has always rated high in my list of the worst night of the year. And once again it proved to be somewhat of a washout last night...

Firstly we had forgotten that other people still have some form of social life and by the time we remembered to make plans everyone we knew already had social engagements. So we were going to make the best of it and had plans for having a fun if rather quiet evening in alone. However, for reasons I won't go into, both Mark and I were totally exhausted so the lovely meal I had planned to cook is now going to be today's lunch (we had the easy option of fish and chips last night), and we were in bed before 10pm...

Still, I thought I could reply to everyone's texts of happy New Year this morning. I was rather chuffed to see I had 4 messages when I woke up - how popular I thought! Imagine my disappointment to see that most people had indeed forgotten us - 3 were from the same person who had clearly had one too many vodka's!!! :) Ho hum...