Eurovision

Bah! Russia did not deserve to win!!!! And whilst we certainly didn't deserve to win we really didn't deserve to come last. hope they can find a way to make the voting a bit fairer. Even Malta defected this year and failed to give us any points!

Anyway, this year not only Jonny and Mandy came round, but also Steve and Karen as they had already arranged to come and visit the Hills before any of us realised it was Eurovision weekend. It was lovely to see them as we were out of town the last time they came to visit and we'd not seen them since their wedding in 2005! Whilst I don't begrudge them having a weekend off parenthood it was a shame we didn't get to meet Poppy... It did make me think that it was about time Mark and I had a weekend break though as we've not had any time away together since we went to Philadelphia last July! Mum and Dad beware! :)

As last year we played this drinking game - or rather everyone else did... Mand came up with the idea that I should eat a cocktail sausage every time they had to drink but I politely declined!:) Not as many key changes this year which let us down, but lots of costume changes, fireworks and even females in false beards! Fab!

The general standard was really quite high, and I do think other countries take their entries more seriously than us. As a collective once we collated our collective scores we put in votes for Azerbaijan and Bosnia and Herzegovina, although my top score went to Ukraine, with Iceland and Bosnia in joint second place.

As per usual I provided far too much party food, as well as loads of lasagne, salad and garlic bread (perfect Eurovision fodder as it can be pre-prepared and then just shoved in the oven so you don't miss any of the action!). Overall a very good evening - just a bit of disappointment about the results...

No water!

We woke up this morning to discover we had no water. Initially I thought it was just our road, but when I went to the shop to buy some bottled water so I could brew up I realised it must be more widespread. I still don't know how much of Sale was out but almost everyone in the store had trolleys of almost nothing but water, and the water aisle was looking particularly empty! Luckily just at that moment a man brought a pallet with some more on (although only 6 4 bottles packs) so I grabbed a couple and legged it quick!

It's strange though how removing the water supply just for a few hours (it came back on early afternoon) has such an impact on life! You don't appreciate how much you use it until it's gone! It really made me think about how people survive after various disasters when people lose not just a clean water supply but power too and in some cases their homes and possessions. Not that I thought it'd be a walk in the park before mind, but I was such a wuss today it made me wonder just how I'd cope if something bad really happened! Not well I'm guessing!

Well, the news is out...!

This may surprise a few people but it isn't eating too many pies that is the cause my ever expanding midriff! It has been becoming increasingly difficult to hide so we've been slowly going public with the news that I'm once again pregnant over the last couple of weeks. I have to say it's a bit of a relief as it means I can finally breathe out at work and wear large elasticated trousers too!

I'm a bit over 18 weeks pregnant now, and whilst I don't remember exactly I'm sure I was much smaller when carrying Tully which was the last time I managed to get to this stage. So either this one is HUGE, or more likely my tummy muscles think I'm having a laugh and are on strike refusing to do as much work in holding everything in again...

We finally told Tully last week: needless to say she is very excited about becoming a big sister, and understands a surprisingly mature amount about what is going on now and will happen when the baby comes. Having said that I still think it'll come as a rather large shock to her when it arrives and she discovers she is no longer centre of attention.

We got for the 20 week scan in a couple of weeks (a week late as I have to go to the US the week I should go) so fingers crossed everything is still ok.

Typecast?

Tully: "Let's play a game!"
Me: "Ok..."
Tully: "I can be the beautiful Princess, Daddy can be the handsome Prince, and you can be the evil wicked Witch!"
Me: :S

Holiday dilemma Over!

And we're going to Suffolk! I know, I know, it's not what you were expecting to hear! If I'm honest it's not what I was expecting to hear either! :) But when we got quotes back from the hotels in Austria even though the Euro amount was similar to last year the exchange rate makes the cost stupidly unjustifiably expensive. So we had a UK rethink and Mark suggested Suffolk based on a) him revisiting his past (and possibly school too?), b) near lovely beaches, c) opportunity for a day trip to London...

So we've booked one of the cottages at Gladwins Farm and I'm really quite looking forward to it! As part of the booking confirmation they've sent their brochure and the cottages look even lovelier than on the website, the photos of the playarea shows it's 4 times the size you can see on the web, we (and by that I mean Tully) can help feeding sheep, goats, ducks, chickens etc (which though not advertised on the web I'd guessed by reading the comments), plus they included a price list for the spa treatments (very cheap so I'll book 2!) and for the home / farm cooked frozen meals that are also incredibly reasonable so I can be lazy and avoid cooking even on the days we don't eat out! Fab!

Holiday Dilemma Continued...

So, over 2 months on and we are no nearer having booked a holiday! This is very un-marrows like and I'm starting to get really quite worried. We've also come full circle.

Not long after my last post we ruled out Austria, and did some serious research and contemplation into going to Florida before finally discounting as by the time we'd be able to go with work schedules being as crazy as they are it would be much to hot for us.

Then we thought about Denmark, getting the ferry and doing some touring about. Again we did a lot of serious research but finally discounted this option because of the long drive to Harwich and then long ferry crossing seemed silly when we live so close to Manchester airport. It does look a really lovely place to go for a family holiday though so we may well go one year in the future.

Then, Mark had the idea that we shouldn't have a traditional week's holiday, but have a month of taking Friday and Monday off each week and having a series of long weekends. A good idea but when I thought about it properly I worried I'd be so exhausted with all the packing / unpacking / rushing about etc that it would take away some of the enjoyment so that idea went out the window too.

However, as part of the above plan I found a wonderful looking farm place in Cornwall, and we'd be going there for a week if it wasn't that they were fully booked by the time I got around to phoning up to see if they had any availability. Still - I'm thinking this is a serious option for next year!
So now we are considering Austria again. I've sent off for quotes from 2 hotels. The Hotel Alpenrose I was considering before, and the Sport-hotel Achensee which is another I've always thought sounded good. So we'll see what happens.

Mandy's Birthday Weekend

Jonny and Mand hosted the usual bank holiday festivities to celebrate Mandy's birthday. First off out for a curry on Friday evening. Mark was still in the US (at very short notice) but as we'd already arranged for Alicia to come and look after Tully I thought it seemed silly for me to stay in on my own. I had my usual at the Spice Garden - Chicken Sangrila - which is rather unusual but I love it and I can get it at so few places I figure why not! I only eat here once a year after all.

Then on Saturday a BBQ party in their back garden. Tully and I went round mid afternoon - but Mark decided to stay at home as his flight was late getting him home and he was feeling a bit rough. We had lots of fun once Tully got over her initial shyness. The Goodridges were there when we first arrived so she had 3 playmates, then with perfect timing just as they were leaving the Braithwaites arrived so the play mates were instantly replaced!

Seeing Vics!

This weekend we met up with Vics. Sadly Fraser had plans to meet his best man to get measured for their suits for the wedding so couldn't make it. Still - it meant all the more chance for us to gossip about him! In fact I'm surprised he still has ears left they must have been burning so much!

We'd booked a cottage just the far side of Stratford as it was roughly halfway between us, and it was really quite nice. We had Sands View, which is 1 of 6 cottages in a large barn conversion.


I had a really lovely weekend - other than the huge traffic jam on the journey down that is. It was lovely to see Vics, and whilst I know it's impractical I wish I got to see her more frequently. Still, it's not toooo long now until the wedding of the century, and for some unknown reason Vics has asked if I will give a speech on her behalf - the fool! :)

Forbidden City and Mao's Mausoleum

I uploaded some pictures of my last day in China ages ago, and only just remembered I didn't get round to adding a narrative.

So, my meetings on the last day got cancelled, which meant I got chance to visit the Forbidden City. My taxi driver dropped me at the northern end which I was initially suspect about, but actually provided easiest access. The only thing was it meant I walked through it by always approaching the various Gates and Palaces from the back. Traditionally visitors would enter from the south when granted an audience with the Emperor.

My favourite place was the Imperial Garden, which was by the gate I entered. Very tranquil.


To my untrained eye most of the Palaces, open areas and Gates looked rather similar. So much so I can't be sure which one this is. I think it's the Palace of Heavenly Purity, but is a good example of roughly what the rest of it was like. Honestly, how much of a heathen am I?!


The other area that I particularly liked was what would have been the first area visitors would see (the last I saw) with the Golder River Bridges.


I continued out the south entrance to the Forbidden City and had a wander around Tiananmen Square. It's huge, and rather austere. This view was looking back towards the Southern entrance to the Forbidden City from about 1/3 of the way down.


In the centre of Tiananmen Square, somewhat breaking it up and making it feel rather smaller than it actually is, is Chairman Mao's Mausoleum. For a couple of hours each morning visitors can enter and walk past his embalmed body. I was too late, but I'm not sure I especially like the idea of it anyway!

A rather large wall!

One of the reasons (well, the only reason if I'm honest) that I came a day early was to give me chance to do some sightseeing whilst I was here, as I suspect it'll be a long time before I can justify another trip out here. So today I headed out to see The Great Wall!

Luckily the sun was shining and visibility was really good, but that just meant lots of other people had had the same idea. We started out to Badaling, the closest and therefore most popular section, but the traffic was so awful we had a change of plan and went to Mutianyu instead.

I obviously can't compare but Barry (who had come here a day early too as at one point we thought we had meetings today) had only been to Badaling previously said it was much better here both in terms of wall-ness and busy-ness.

Now I know this sounds daft, as I knew it went along in the mountains, but I'd assumed (until reading up on it a bit) that you'd park up right next to it and get walking. Not so. You first have to trail through a market of about 100 souvenir stalls (with some vendors being really very very pushy!) and then take a cable car up to the top of the mountain. Well, you can choose to walk up but seeing how up-y and down-y the wall was I thought it wise to save my energy for when I got there!

Anyway, we set off in the direction that the top photo above was taken, and it wasn't too bad at first - just a little undulating. But then as you can see, about level with my neck at the far right of the picture, it takes a sharp turn to the left and heads straight uphill, and I'm embarrassed to say I was completely knackered by the time I got to the top! And when I say the top you can only get as far as the tower that is about level with the top of my head!!!! It is interesting to see the difference between 'original' wall and the repaired section that you are allowed to walk along. Liu had insisted we take water, and I'm glad we did. I was also very envious of a family that had arrived not long after us and proceeded to set up a rather yummy looking picnic!

That final stretch was only 454 steps, and really doesn't look very far (this was taken only about 20 steps down). But every step is a different height, and some are wide and some are narrow so you can't get into any kind of rhythm as you walk. Or at least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. We can't have walked any more than 1km from the start (by the tower at the crest of the hill in the distance) but it was enough. Even super fit Barry was quite tired, although I'm sure he'd have carried on walking had he been allowed. Personally I'm quite glad they provided a natural turning back point.

All in all a good day out. Even if it is only a wall! It certainly makes Hadrian's efforts look a bit feeble! It's a pity I've got to work tomorrow, I'm quite enjoying this being a tourist malarkey!

In China!

So I made it! The journey was fairly uneventful, other than nearly landing in Frankfurt then the plane whoosing back up at a steep incline straight after touch down. Given how much I travel it's a little surprising that this is the first time something like that has happened to me. I never did work out what had happened as the announcement afterwards was primarily in German...

When I arrived in Beijing it was raining - which I've been told is very rare. Apparently the last time they had rain was in October so I think I must have brought it with me! It did clear up enough for me to go for a little walk once I'd have a couple of hours sleep: I usually sleep well on planes but I just couldn't get comfy, despite having much more leg room than on the flight I normally take to and from Philly.

The hotel is very near the Olympic stadium so I wandered down to have a look. It's all a bit of a building site at the moment though. It was also incredibly foggy (which I later found out was smog not fog) so visibility was very poor. Apparently you can get a better view if you walk just another 5 minutes around the corner, so if the visibility gets better I may wander round at some point to take some more photos.

I then wandered the other way a bit to see what was there. And was highly amused to discover that just across from the hotel is McDonalds, a KFC and a Pizza Hut all next door to each other! The Starbucks craze hasn't really caught on though - whilst on my journeys so far I've seen numerous of the above chains but only seen 2 Starbucks! :) For all it amuses me in one way I actually find it quite sad too. Oh well, I suppose you can't stop 'progress'...

Off to China!

I am going to China for work, and unusually for work travel have managed to ensure I get a little free time to be a bit of a tourist too! Well, I had to leave first thing on Saturday to get there in time for my meetings so thought I may as well set off a day early!

I'm heading to Beijing first, so will go and visit the Great Wall. I know it's just a wall but it seems rude to go all that way and not go and have a bit of a wander along it. My hotel in Beijing looks rather smart too.

Sadly work agenda has changed and I now have some meetings on Sunday, but I will have some free time on the last day before I leave so should have time to take in the Forbidden City at the end of the week, and as long as my flights aren't delayed (and flying Lufthansa you'd expect them to be efficient!) I should still be back in time to see Tully before she goes to bed next Friday.

I'm also popping to Shanghai for a night or two somewhere in the middle but not exactly sure when yet... The hotel there doesn't look quite as good but it's very near where I need to work so I can't complain.

As work trips go I am looking forward to it more than most! I'm just a bit worried about the cuisine - I've heard such horror stories from most other people that have ventured there and I'm a bit picky when it comes to eating meat at the best of times too! I'll let you know how it goes...

A bit depressed and very hungry...

I'm back in New Orleans again - staying in the same hotel as before (only my room this time is in the other tower but near the top!). Once again I'm really struggling with jet lag, and also suffering from having to stand on the booth all day - my back and feet are killing!

I was undecided whether to go out or not this evening as I was feeling really tired, but thought that a) staying in was a bit antisocial and b) there was a table booked at what is, apparently, the best steak house in town so thought it was worth a try. Sadly they could only fit us in at 7:45 which is a bit late given the time difference and my jet lag.

The restaurant is in the casino just a couple of blocks down from the hotel and unfortunately I got ID'ed to enter the casino area, and whilst I'm normally really organised about taking ID out with me over here I hadn't done so tonight. So, being a bit miffed in general I decided just to go back to my room and have room service after all...

The only problem is that they have a guaranteed 50 minute delivery time, but as the table was late and it was even later by the time I was back in my room it's meant to be here sometime before 9. I'm starving, and feeling a bit fed up in general. Still, in 48 hours I'll be nearly home, or at least half way back across the Atlantic...

Holiday Dilemma

As ever when I've not got a holiday in the offing I am somewhat preoccupied with trying to plan one! I can't help it: it's hereditary - honest!

So, first off to Kinderhotel or not? And if so the same one as last year or try another? This one is a hot favourite from my current investigations. The pros of going back to the Hagleitner include it's cheaper, we know it and the area, it was fab(!), it's easy to get to... But whilst I say all that it just isn't in my nature to revisit somewhere, no matter how good so my current tendency is to try somewhere else. I'll keep you posted if I make a decision any time soon...

Freezer Traumas

I've been putting off the job of de-icing the freezer for several months now, but the ice had got so bad that the door wouldn't shut without care and giving it an extra shove! Sadly yesterday the extra shove part got omitted and by the time I noticed the ice had grown so big that the door wouldn't shut at all.

We've managed to save the majority of the food by eating rather odd combos of food for lunches and teas, and now the freezer is completely ice free! Yey!

Dr Tully

We bought Tully a doctor's set for her birthday, which she got her first real chance to play with this evening. She puts the stethoscope on and gets Mark to play at being poorly.

"Daddy, breathe in. And out. And again. And again. And again"

She shakes her head looking very sombre.

"It's serious" she says solemnly, "I'm going to have to chop you leg off."!!!! Then proceeds to try and his cut it off with the scissors from the kit. I thought it was hilarious. Not sure Mark was as amused as his leg gets hacked at and then has a plaster applied to it.

Happy birthday Tuls! X

Fun day

Today has been a bit good. First off Tully did really really well in her swimming lesson and earned her 5m swim badge. I think I'm more chuffed than her - she is certainly underwhelmed by the whole thing...

This evening Jonny and Mandy came round. It was lovely to see them as it's been ages since we've had a proper get together, especially as Mark and Mand were so poorly on Christmas Day. And I made some delicious food if I say so myself: roasted peppers and halloumi for starters, and a big cheesy fondue with more different things to accompany it as you could possibly imagine! Then for those that felt they could manage it, jelly (a pig shaped practise run for Tully's party tomorrow) raspberries and ice cream! Yum yum yum.

My birthday!

Blimey - I'm feeling old. 33 today - booooo!

Poor car

The idea at Centerparcs is that you drive to your lodge to unload, but then you leave you car in a big carpark and it's a car free zone until it is time to pack up to leave again.

This is the sight that met us as we got back to the car this morning. No note or anything left either. Mean people. Dread to think how much it'll cost to fix, although Tully seems to think I'll be able to fix it with sellotape!

Snowy Journey

As usual I booked to go away for my birthday weekend. Due to lots of reasons I ended up choosing Centerparcs at Whinfell Forest (near Penrith). The day before we set off the weather forecast was worryingly bad for the M6 in Cumbria. This is what it looked like on the day!

Luckily, after some careful driving, we got there safely.

Bit of a catch up!

We've had a rather hectic couple of weeks. So, Saturday 12th Alicia baby sat and we went out for a rather mediocre meal (we left it way too late to arrange and consequently struggled to get in where we wanted to) and then went to see I am Legend. It was ok, nothing more than that. Personally I prefer 28 Days Later which I suppose would be the UK equivalent... Still, it was nice to have an evening out so whilst the entertainment could have been better it was still a nice evening.

Then, the next day on Sunday morning Tully and I dropped Mark off at the airport at 8 in the morning for him to catch his flight to Seattle, where he was going to attend a week long conference. That afternoon Tully and I went to see The Snowman which was really lovely, and Tully sat remarkably well given it was quite long - well extended over the tv adaptation. It was so lovely to see the look of wonder on her face even before anything happened as it was her first theatre trip and she was (mostly) enthralled throughout. Of course it helped that Holly was sat next to her, and she got ice cream at the interval too!

Now then, Mark's flight home was due in at 8ish on the following Saturday morning and I had to go to New Orleans that same day for a sales meeting, with the flight scheduled at 11:25... As it was rather close, and even on the assumption that Mark would be back on time he'd be so jetlagged he'd not want to look after Tully for an entire weekend, we enlisted the help of Mum and Dad. So they came over on Friday, and then dropped me off at the airport on Saturday before setting off with Tully back to their house for a few days. Tully was a little nervous about it as it was the first time she'd gone away on her own, but she was a complete and utter angel (so I'm told, although I'm not sure Mum would tell me even if she was upset / badly behaved!) and I'm so proud of how she copes with some of the situations we throw her into.

So, onto New Orleans. I was staying in the New Orleans Marriott rirght in the centre on Canal Street and just a block down from Bourbon Street. I somehow got lucky and had a room fairly high up in the corner of the right hand tower, which meant it was a) quite big and b) had windows the full lenghth of 2 sides giving a rather good view!

For some reason I really struggled with jet lag (although maybe I was also recovering after being a single parent the week before!) so the first few evenings I went to the various mandatory evening events and then bailed out to bed pretty early. On the last night though I decided it was too good an opportunity to miss so headed along Bourbon Street for a couple of hours. Its really rather odd - I'm sure I'll get slammed for this but the best way to describe it is Blackpool with jazz! Although: Dad, I did go into a bar that I know you would love, and think possibly even Mum could tolerate! :)

Anyway, I'm glad I've been but not sure it's somewhere I would now choose to revisit... Unfortunately I'm back there again in 5 weeks for Pittcon... :(

Magic Sheep!

Jon and Mand brought us this magic sheep back from their holiday in Scotland. Now I know that was a very long time ago, but because it said not suitable for children under 10 we thought it must include some really nasty chemical. The chances of Tully listening to us and not touching were it slim, so we took it into work where it consequently got hidden under all the random piles of stuff on my incredibly untidy desk...

Anyway, yesterday we found it and thought we'd have a go. Here he is at lunchtime when first assembled...


Here is his progress about 2 hours later...


And here he is the next morning! All wooly...


Lots of fun, and it's kept the majority of the office entertained too! Thank you!

Birthday Break

I had grand plans for my birthday this year: I was finally going to go to Rome! I've been wanting to go for years and year and just somehow never quite got round to it. I'd even chosen which hotel we were going to stay in and was just finalising which dates we were both free to go, as well as which days my parents were free to look after Tully...

The more perceptive of you may have spotted the use of the past tense above! Well, Mark now has to go to Seattle the week before my trip to New Orleans. His flight lands just 3 hours before mine leaves. If all was well and good this ought to just about give us enough time to meet at the airport and hand over parental responsibility.

But it is a little close for comfort, and even assuming that there were no flight delays poor jetlagged Mark would be sole parent from 9am Saturday morning and have to survive the entire weekend looking after the monster haivng come stright off a 17 hour journey and an 8 hour time difference. After much cogitating, Mum and Dad have been enlisted to help. Now, I know they'd be more than happy to look after Tully again just a couple of weeks later, but even I think it would be a bit mean of us to go and leave her again so soon afterwards...

So now, do we take Tully to Rome or plan something else? I've had mixed reviews of Rome with small children - a couple of people say it's really not good for someone her age whilst others have taken their little ones and said it was good. Either way, when it came down to it, neither Mark or I have ever fancied the idea of sharing a hotel room with her and have actively avoided it... Where's the fun in having to go back to the room around her bedtime, and sitting in the dark with the tv on quietly waiting for the morning to come when we can have fun again. Very little if you ask me.

So, a bit of a leap here, but we've booked to go to Centerparcs at Whinfell Forest. Still, despite the change in direction of the choice of weekend break I'm quite looking forward to it...

Thank goodness that's over!

That being 2007!

Not one of my better years by a long shot. Still, onwards and upwards into 2008. And I'm optimistic - mainly as it can't be as bad as last year, and whilst I am not one for making New Year Resolutions I am determined that with a New Year I can do my best to put my depressed state of mind from 2007 behind me!

Films

Over Christmas Mark and I have been making the most of our Sky Movies subscription, something we rarely use. Most of the films were ones we've seen before, but a couple were new ones...

Casino Royale: I really enjoyed this first time around when we saw it at the cinema but I'd forgotten just how good it was. Probably my favourite film from the following seletion.





Mean Girls: This was a new one - Mark had bought it for a couple of pounds in a DVD bargain basket a couple of months back, but even so we were putting off watching it! But it's actually really quite good - much much better than I expected it to be! It's almost as good as 10 Things I Hate About You'!
;)

Gladiator: I love this film and it's another that I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it. Joaquin Phoenix makes such a good baddie and I especially like how the score compliments the visuals throughout!




Inside Man: We saw this on our very rainy weekend in Belfast, and I've seen it again since on a plane. Still very enjoyable third time through though.





Enemy of the State: We used to watch this quite frequently on DVD, but not seen it for several years now. I always feel bad for Will Smith's character though, but I suppose without that there'd be no film so I can get over it!



Hot Fuzz: This was the other new one, and one I've been meaning to watch ever since it came out on DVD. I always enjoy Simon Pegg's work - Spaced is one of my fav series and Shaun of the Dead is another DVD we break out too often. And I wasn't disappointed - if anything it was better than I expected. The only thing missing was an appearance by Jessica Hynes (Stevenson)...

The Wedding Singer: This is another on our frequently watched DVD list - it has to be said the sound track is really very good. And I love the ending with Billy Idol - class!

Christmas!

Yey! I love Christmas, and it was wonderful to see Tully getting so into it this year too. It's just a shame Markie was so poorly that he missed out on most of the fun.

Jonny made a really delicious dinner - sorry Mum but I have to say it was the tastiest turkey in the world ever! I was very spoiled as he had made me my own personal dish of bread sauce! He also made the famous mile high pie as the veggie option (well, it's famous if you know Jon and Mand anyway!). I'm not sure he did it justice with his picture on his blog so I've added it in large size below! Yummmmmy!

Thanks to Jon, Mand and Sarah for letting us share their Christmas.

Big piece of pig!

The only thing Mark put in a special request for whilst I was making the shopping list was a giant piece of pig! As I'm not all that keen on pork (yuk!) I got this huge piece of gammon instead. Think it meets requirements?

Merry Christmas and all that!

Every year we go to visit Mark's Nan and Grandad on the last Sunday before Christmas, and the visit now symbolises the commencment of the festive period in my head. So, today being that auspicious day, we headed up to Accrington and I can start celebrating! Woo hoo!

Am I ready for christmas? Pretty much - after getting the fear about how busy supermarkets would be this weekend I ended up making a snap decision and went late on Friday evening. I even made a list (!) and so far haven't thought of anything I've forgotten so I'm quite pleased with myself.

The presents are all bought and wrapped with 1 rather important exception! Honestly, you'd think nursery could have given us more warning of the only thing Tully wants in the world for Christmas... But hey ho - it means Mark has something to do to pass his lunchtime tomorrow instead of staying at work - I just hope one of Asda, B&Q or Homebase come up trumps otherwise we'll have 1 sadly disappointed little girl on Christmas morning!

New Bedroom TV

We finally got round to sorting our broadband out the other week (we were still on a really old BT package that was 8 times slower and £5 more expensive than their current offering!), and as part of that we were entitled to free BTVision which we've put in the bedroom. The problem with this is that the current TV in the bedroom is the one I bought as a teenager and it doesn't have a SCART input... So finally, a good excuse to buy a new one! ;)

After much kerfuffling and investigating we decided on a Samsung one - and I'm really pleased with it. The only problem now is that we need a better aerial. Still, that can wait until the New Year!

Woohoo!

The search for giant bug balloons is over!!!! I should have thought to try Wilkos! The only problem now if finding chance to go there without Tully in tow in the next week, especially as she's asked if Father Christmas can bring her a yellow and pink one!!! Is it too decadent to get them delivered?

Oh, and is it just me that's excited by the idea of elephant balloons!?

More Christmas celebrations!

We had our company Christmas do last Saturday at the Radisson SAS at the airport. It was very pleasant: the food actually decent for once, nice location etc. The only problem was that normally we are supplied with rather more booze than was freely flowing this year. And whilst most people are mroe than happy to buy their own the prices were ridiculous! £5.45 for a glass of wine!!!!!!!!! Outrageous! The best thing about it though? We'd persuaded Mum and Dad to come and babysit and booked ourselves a room there so I got a really good and proper lie in! And when I finally managed to drag myself out of bed it was just in time to go downstairs for a full english! Bliss!

Then today I had arranged a lunch / afternoon / evening of celebration for our team. As I was a bit busy with other things (mostly work and small children!) by the time I got round to finding time to phone and book a tables not many places could fit our group in. In the end La Vina on Deansgate said they could take our party. Luckily the food was delicious and the wine very free flowing: well, what do you expect if I was in charge of organising it! The only downside was that Mark was also invited so we had to decide who got to stay on for the evening part and who had to come back to pick Tully up. As it's been a while since Mark had a night out I volunteered to come back so I hope he has fun! Still, I'm not having a bad night - catching up with things in general and watching a girly film - Love Actually to get myself into a festive spirit!

Oops, it's been a while.

Ho hum, once again time has passed me by and whilst I've been good at keeping Tully's blog up to date mine has fallen somewhat by the wayside...

In my defense I have been a tad busy - since I last posted I've been to Lisbon for a conference for a week. It was at the Dom Pedro hotel which was nice enough but not the style of hotel I'd choose to stay in myself. I wore myself out there though - I worked out afterwards I'd done about 5 hours of presentations across 2 days, as well as moderating for day which means being mic'ed up and getting up and down every 30 minutes making announcements, introducing speakers and answering questions so even though not presenting it was pretty tiring. The good thing about this trip was that for once I got a half day free to explore which was nice as I've never been to Lisbon before. It's a nice enough city but there are other places I'd rather visit again before going back...

I've also been up to Edinburgh for a couple of nights - the work part was quite stressy and not only because we went to the wrong place and had to jump in a cab and whizz up to Dundee where the people we were meeting actually were! It was rather amusing looking back but not ideal at the time! But it was lovely to be back in Edinburgh - it's a city I love and I'm determined to go back for pleasure instead of business soon. We stayed in the Radisson SAS on the Royal Mile so in a fab location and wandered up to The Thai Orchid just by the Castle for a very yummy dinner.

Work is somewhat hectic which I mostly love, but sometimes I do find hard to combine with being a Mum... Tully is wonderful in almost every way, but is also at a rather challenging age (or maybe it's just her!) and at times I feel like I've been strugglong to cope.

Still, I've a reasonably quiet run down to Christmas now which is good, and not too much planned over the festive period itself so hopefully I'll be all relaxed and ready to tackle next year! Or is that just wishful thinking on my part? Anyway, enough ramble for now. I'll try and not leave it so long next time as I'll be less likely to waffle on so much!

Am I smarter than a 2 year old?

Never mind the show 'Are you smarter than a 10 year old?' (which I have to say I am quite enjoying even if they do insist on dragging it out at times). The question I'm left asking myself more frequently these days is am I smarter than a 2 year old, and unfortunately more often than not the answer is no!

The latest outsmarting? Well, in the last few months Tully has steadfastly refused to eat pretty much any vegetable, always repeating the mantra 'I don't like vegetables' whenever they are offered to her in any form. It's a shame as when she was younger she would eat pretty much any veg, and in fact I worried she ate too many and not enough other foods...

Anyway, I read on a website the other day about ways to entice toddler to eat veg, one idea being to pretend (as an example) that broccoli is little fairy trees, or that mushrooms are little houses...

Tonight we were preparing tea, and broccoli is on the menu so i decide to give it a go. She's very into it, and wanting to see her little trees in the pan, and paying lots of interest when I am serving up! Whilst we are eating she is again paying lots of interest in her little trees and asking if Mark and I are eating them / enjoying them. Woohoo I think, somewhat naively, this might actually work. How foolish was I?

"Tully" I say, "Would you like to try one of the little trees?".
"No Mummy" says she, "It's broccoli really - I don't like broccoli. We are just pretending it is little trees aren't we...".

Back to the drawing board.

Any helpful hints appreciated!

Miami

I've just come home from a conference in Miami, at the Marriott Doral Golf Resort. It was a bit of a whistle stop tour as I got to the hotel after 10pm on Monday evening, and left again at lunchtime on Thursday.

The hotel was really nice, the accomodation being in a number of 'lodges' set around the pool area which looked lovely - pity I didn't get opportunity too use it!

My Shutterfly Book!

It's turned up, and I'm really chuffed with it. Rather annoyingly I've now spotted a typo - grrr. And it would be nice if I could have chosen the finish of the pages to be a little more on the matt side, but overall I'm very impressed. Would definitely recommend it.

Shutterfly

During my trip to Boston last week the trainer of my course waxed lyrical about the joys of shutterfly, with particular reference to the photobooks.

Now I used to enjoy collating albums from important events or holidays, but since we've turned digital I've not bothered so much, mainly because I'm so lazy at getting round to getting photos printed out so I thought I'd investigate.

As shutterfly are a US based company I looked around for someone offering a similar service in the UK. Photobox, whom I've used several times before and always been impressed with, do offer photobooks but the choice of styles is non existant in comparison with Shutterfly.

As I couldn't find anyone else so decided to just go with Shutterfly and pay the shipping to the UK. So this week I've been working on a mini project getting a book compiled from our trip to New Zealand.

The interface is really nice and easy to use - I was really impressed. The finished book is now been sent into production so I'll let you know what the finished results are like when it turns up in a couple of weeks.

Quote of the day...

At Knowsley Safari Park... Bear in mind this is after seeing lions, tigers, monkeys, rhinos etc.

"Wow Mum! Look!" This is the most excited Tully'd been all day. I was surprised she was so excited about an ostrich...

"Mum, a chicken!" :S

Trip to Boston

I've been in Boston this week for a training course, held at the Hyatt Harborside at Logan airport. As airport hotels go it was ok - a little away from the terminal so you did at least feel like you'd left the airport behind. By far the best bit though was the view across the harbour to the city, and somehow I managed to blag an upgrade and get a harbor view room too!

Another plus aws that the water taxis stopped right outside the hotel so it was easy to hop on one and head into town -lucky really as there was nothing much to do at the hotel so I ended up going over every day.

As trips go this was quite a good one. Still glad to be home though.

Holiday

I know, I know. Tully has more than covered it already and everyone one other than me is bored senseless of reading about it... But I do feel compelled to put something on my blog too about it, purely because despite the weather doing it's best to ruin things it really was completely and utterly wonderful, and that is all down to the hotel.

I can't praise it enough - and also struggle to describe it. Clearly it is very kid friendly, but it doesn't feel like that is all there is to it. It actually felt rather grown up and relaxing, and that was the ambience that came across rather than it being all about the kids. I suspect it was because the kids were so well catered for that it meant they didn't need to be demanding attention from their parents. And, on the whole, all the kids there were extremely well behaved.
The adults only spa area was a perfect haven too (and yes, I did pop for a treatment - it would have been rude not to!). This was actually in the interconnected sister hotel next door, that also has a posh bar and restuarant we could use if we had chosen to. As it happened the food we got was so good we didn't feel the need to go next door - whilst the kids buffet catered more than happily for every childs needs and we got served some rather delicious grown up style food alongside it which kept everybody happy.

We were rather lucky in that I think we got one of the best rooms in the hotel. I'd chosen a Kitzsteinhorn apartment for us, which were in a seperate building to the main hotel connected via an underground tunnel (which we used rather a lot given the rain!). Ours was the left hand 1st floor balcony...


View 1 from our room...


View 2 from our room...


So, would I go back to Hotel Hagleitner? Certainly. Would I go back to another Kinderhotel for either skiing or in the summer? Definitely. Would I recommend either to anyone that has 1 or more children under the age of 8 or so? Absolutely!

"Mum - I want some crocs!"

It seems the request for branded clothes / shoes is starting early. Whilst walking past a shoe shop on Monday displaying some crocs in the window, Tully spotted them and instantly shouted out her demands... Luckily she spotted some pigeons to chase soon after and completely forgot about them!

Well, that told me!

During our visit to Drusillas on Saturday...

Me: "Ooo Tully, look at those pretty birds."

Tully (with a look of complete disdain on her face): "No Mummy - don't be so silly. They aren't birds. They are flamingos..."

Harry Potter

It has been a bit of a Harry Potter week for us. Firstly the book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) arrived last Saturday and Mark had finished it by Monday, before handing it on to me, and I had finished it by Thursday. And very very good it was too

Then this Saturday we went to watch the film - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I really enjoyed it, much more than I remember enjoying the book.

Caught red handed!

I've been suspecting that a squirrel has been at the bird feeder for a little while, and today I caught him red handed!

Bit of a catch up...

Since I last posted we had another night out courtesy of our friendly baby sitter across the road. We went round to Jon and Mand's for a very pleasant evening. Jonny cooked non-meat meat balls for tea, and they even broke out the 'special' gin so we were very honoured!

Since then we have had a few nights away in Philadelphia. Both Mark and I had to go to the same meeting (not something that happens often luckily) so as Mum and Dad were being shipped over to baby sit we thought we'd get them over early and we could have a lovely weekend away.

It only partly worked - Philadelphia was having a bit of a heat wave and since neither Mark or I do hot places it was unbearably unpleasant. The meeting was being held in the Sheraton Society Hill at the other end of Philly from where we normally stay for work which was nice. We managed to have a wander from about 8 to 10 in the morning on Sunday before facing defeat and heading back to the hotel and air con! Still, in that time we had time to wander past the Liberty Bell (again) and tour Independence Hall.

We had done this before during our East Coast US tour in 99, but it was interesting to do it again. The tour had changed slightly, and as I have the most useless memory in the world when it comes to historical stuff it was still interesting. What was most interesting though as to see how much the area to the front of Indepedence Hall had changed. The Liberty Bell is housed in a new building and display, and there is a big shiny new visitors centre too. They are still showing the same old video though from the old visitor centre (which, incidentally was right next door to our hotel and now seems to be living history museum).

Monday we managed slightly better - I persuaded Mark to let me go on one of the duck tours. I'd fancied them in Boston but couldn't bring myself to be that much of a tourist! And it was really good. It took us to some parts of the old town we'd not seen before and was very informative. Plus we got 'quackers' so Tully was sorted out with a present! Afterwards we had a look around the new National Constitution Centre - which other than the good air con was a big mistake. I'm sure if one is American it's really good, otherwise it's verging on offensive. We both felt robbed. After that we jumped in a taxi to take us to South Street to sample one of Jim's famous Philly Cheese Steaks before finally admitting defeat to the weather at about 11:30 and heading back to our cool hotel room. Monday afternoon all our work chums arrived and work started :(

Better late than never...

I've finally got round to putting up a post about our trip to Waddington. It was a strange day - rather emotional, but good to see the helicopter and to see that Andy's story was so important in the days proceedings.

Here's a photo of Gazelle XX411.


Margaret Thatcher was there for the memorial ceremony.


Andy's cross is the second from the left.


Display about the events of the 21st May.


Mark with Eddy.

We have a life again!

So, this whole having a baysitter thing is working out well so far! Last week we went to see Ocean's Thirteen, which I really enjoyed. It was in a similar vein to Ocean's Eleven back in Vegas, and was a significant improvement on Ocean's Twelve...

Then, last night we went out for a a few drinks and a meal. As Tully has been sleeping quite badly this week due to a cough we thought we'd stay close by just in case. We were in the mood for Thai so headed to Jitrada. Now I've always really enjoyed the food here, and I like the atmosphere more than in the Chilli Club in Altrincham which many of our friends seem to prefer. It's been a few years since we've been so I was hoping it was as I remembered and I have to say I wasn't disappointed. The service was friendly, efficient yet relaxed, and the food was very very tasty. In my opinion, this place is still to be highly recommended.

General catch up...

Once again I've been somewhat remiss at posting much on my blog... Since my last post I've been back to Madrid, had a weekend at Mum and Dads and had a day trip to Cork.

Other news - we have acquired a regular babysitter. The girl across the road offered her services; we thought it was a rather good idea and snapped her up on it before she changed her mind! She gets pocket money, we get a regular night out and should something out of the ordinary happen her Mum is 10 seconds away which gives me complete peace of mind - everyone's a winner! So the idea is that alternate weeks we get a night out - the only problem being we seem to have forgotten what normal people do for a night out so suggestions / reminders gratefully accepted!

Looking forward to a rare week at home this week. Lovely!