South Africa

Another month, another trip. South Africa this time. I started out in Johannesburg for 1 night, and then moved to near Durban. we stayed in a small village a few miles out called Umhangla, and one evening ur agent there showed us around, and I was particularly interested as by pure chance it was the village that a friend of ours lived as a teenager!

Cornish Hols

We went to Cornwall for our summer holiday. the weather wasn't great and I had a stonking cold, but we had a nice chilled out week.

Brazil

I was lucky to go on a trip to Brazil this month. I started off in Sao Paulo for a couple of nights then flew over to Rio for the rest of my meetings. I had to work REALLY hard (honest) - and although my hotel was on Copacabana beach I never got to set foot on it. I did pop to the roof terrace of my hotel during a break one day to take a photo though!


I had to drive round the main bay in Rio each day to get to the site, so I got to look up at the 'Jesus' on the hill each time but never got chance to take a decnt photo. This was the best I managed out the car window!


On my very last day with all meetings over I had about 3 hours before my flight - not long enough to drive to the Jesus but just about time to go up the cable cars to the top of the "Sugar Loaf".


Where there were more views across to the Jesus from the top


and also views back to Copacabana beach over my right shoulder - and you can just about make out the Jesus on the top of the hill on the far right of the picture.

Drive!

We've finally got around to doing some of the things to the house we planned when we moved in this month. We enquired about getting the flooring in the kitchen and hall done to match the floor we put in the 2 living rooms last year, and discovered it was no longer available in the UK!!! They did however manage to find some in Holland so we decided to get it done before it was completely obsolete!

The other 'big' thing was to replace the horrible concrete expanse that was our drive, which we did in a joint project with our neighbour. They turned up with a tiny pneumatic drill on day 1 which was no match for it as it turned out to be 2 foot deep and reinforced!!!!! They burnt out 2 in 2 hours and gave up.

They came back on day 2 with some serious equipment to break it up, and the day ended with this scene...


Day 3 they levelled it off and started laying out the borders and recasting the second post, day 4 they made decent progess laying the main blocks at the front, and day 5 they had finished most of the front.


And here is the finished result (on our side). They finished up with next door the next day. It looks so much better, I am very pleased with it.

God Mum

We've 'popped' to Brighton this weekend for Charlotte's wedding - and I'm going to God Mum! Gulp! Luckily Vics knows my religious views so it's all ok - I just need to convince the vicar and it'll all be ok!

Rome

I've not posted on here for a while, but this week I went to Rome and unusually for a work trip I had one evening free to get to look around. I managed to do a whistle stop tour and see many of the main sites externally, but saved going in to anything for going back for a proper trip...

Snow!

I've brought the kids over to Lincolnshire for some of half term. It snowed twice while we were there. This was one the first evening...


And this was on the morning we were setting off home. Nice!

Orlando

I've come to Orlando this week for a conference. Not for long as I want to get back for Tully's birthday so I've just flown out for a couple of nights. I am here for the gala dinner at Epcot though... Typical though - it is raining!

Birthday!

Yippee! It's my birthday. I got home this morning and caught up with some sleep. Then I went to Altrincham and had a lovely lunch out (other than getting 'customered' very briefly as a load of people were up for training and taken to the same pub we were in) with Mark and the rest of the team.

After lunch I went into Altrincham to pick up my lovely necklace that Mark bought me for my birthday. Only it hadn't arrived :( but they phoned me half an hour later to say it had appeared!

So I picked Tully up from school and we whizzed back to collect it (not much fun for her though). It really is beautiful.

Then off to get Harry, home for birthday cake, a take away and a DVD. Not that exciting to some people maybe, but it was just lovely to be home and with my family. XX

Trip to Philly

This week I had to go to our head office in Philadelphia for some training. I wasn't looking forward to the trip especially, but in the end it was better than I was expecting.

I set off determined I was NOT going to eat in Tequilas on this trip - I was never that impressed and the fact I end up being taken at some point during every visit just means I'm bored of it. I did well at avoiding it on Monday night, which was lucky as I ended up on a group meal there on Wednesday and going 2 nights out of 3 would be a bad record to set...

I also flew home on Thursday night to get back for my birthday. I had a really lovely day when I got in and was very glad to be back for it...

Skiing!

I had been wondering about going to the Chill Factore for a bit of a ski for a while, but knew it would be a bit dull on my own. Then I had a brainwave and asked Anna if she fancied coming with me as I knew she was a skier! She did, but sneaky lady 'forgot' to mention that she used to race for her University ski team and wasn't just a holiday type skier like me! Still, although she was clearly much better than me I didn't embarrass myself too much and we had a very good fun 90 minutes whizzing up and down.

Party!

Tonight I went out!!! Sarah and Adrian both turn 40 within 10 days of each other, so they threw a party to celebrate. I had a few G&T's, some buffet, some cake, a natter and a bit of a boogie! Fab!

Snow!

It's been cold for a while now. The first snow we saw was on the 17th December, with a large fall topping it up on the 20th. It has only just returned to normal.

This morning I had to get up at 4:30 to get a plane at 6:00 to Schiphol. This is the sight that greeted me...


I made it to the airport just after 5:00, and as it wasn't snowing they were hoping to clear the runway at 6:00. By the time I was through security (around 5:45 - it was a very long queue!) it had started snowing and the message had changed to 'Next Information at 7'. But 6:30 it changed to 'Next information at 9' and I decided to bail.

It was just gone 7 by the time I'd gone throught he proces of getting off the flight and being escorted back out again. The queue at the ticket desk was long but I waited to rebook my trip. All done by 7:45 I went to find a taxi to take me home. Easier said than done, but I eventually was on the way. I got home just after 8:30, having heard on the radio in the taxi that Tully's school was shut. It didn't stop snowing all day until about 9 at night, with a further 3 or 4 inches landing on top of that shown in the photo above... Nice.

Flowers

The doorbell rang this morning. What a lovely surprise, Mum sent me me these beatiful flowers as a thank you for hosting Christmas!

All sorts

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog, but I've not had much to say, and I've been a tad busy what with getting back to work full time, Tully starting school, sorting out house stuff and that week I'm trying to forget when Harry was poorly...

So, where to start in my catch up? I'll go with the order that I instinctively picked above. First off work, I do love my job, but after a crazy travel week (2 days in Frankfurt, a day at home then a LONG day trip to Paris) and I'm seriously wondering if how realistic it is to do my job and have 2 small children. I'm incredibly lucky that Mark is so supportive, but it's not really fair on either him or the kids. I'm potentially looking at 3 (but definitely at least 2) week trips to the US before Christmas so we'll see how I feel after that. Q4 is always a busy travel quarter, so maybe things'll quieten down in the New Year.

In addition, I'm getting a whole load of new responsibilities handed over to me next week and I'm not quite sure how that's going to work. I would normally never pay myself a compliment, but I'm very proud of the work I do and I believe I do it really well. I wonder if by taking on more I'll just end up doing a mediocre job as I'll not have time to do either well, and if there's something I can't abide it's mediocrity...

Anyway, that turned out to be more maudlin than was intended, so on to more positive things. I am still loving the house, other than being a bit worried by how easily the cellar seems to flood! Everything else is FAB though and we are definitely very settled now!

Tully is doing so well at school, I am very proud of her. She has settled in, made new friends, copes admirably when I forget important things like giving her money on the day of the cake sale or something for the harvest festival (note to self to do better!), and is very mature about the fact that she is one of the few reception children to do 5 days of after school club.

Harry also makes me proud as he is always cheerful at being handed over to Lisa or Sarah in the morning, and always gives me a cheeky grin or a wave when I leave. He seems to be one of their favourites too as he is both very laid back and has a cheeky sense of humour.

So mostly life is good, let's just see how work travel pans out...

Getting ready for school

I'm quite proud to be sewing name tags onto Tully's school uniform ready for Wednesday, but suspect the novelty will have worn off next time I have to do it. How old are they before they can do it themselves?

Frog

I got a surprise when I went down to the cellar to do some laundry. There was a frog sat in the middle of the corridor...

New House Update

Things I love:
1) Having more space - great the the kids have their own play / living room.
2) The kitchen - lovely that I can sit Harry and Tully in with me whilst I'm faffing doing jobs.
3) The nieghbours - everyone is really friendly and welcoming.
4) The cellar - a fab dumping ground. Slightly worried by how full it is already.
5) A big fridge - no more shuffling things round to get everything to fit after going shopping.

Things that could be better:
1) Rubbish electric shower - it says 'Power Shower' on it but I've more power in my little finger...
2) Brrr - it's freezing. Not looking forward to winter.
3) There's a frog in the cellar.
4) Teeny tiny drive - definitely not easy to get the car in and out.
5) No cupboard under the stairs - where do I put the hoover? I guess the cellar but it seems an right faff to have to drag it up and down.

New House

Today we moved! Yippee! It wasn't as stressful as I imagined it would be, even with poorly kids getting in the way... I highly recommend getting the movers to do a full pack though! It was definitely worth the very small amount of extra money over a standard move.

Moving!

Well, moving day is nearly here. The packers are coming on Monday and we move on Tuesday. I feel like I ought to have done more to prepare but am living in ignorant bliss that all will just work out ok! Other than packing up a very few valuables (less than 1 box) we've done nothing at all!!!!

My biggest worry is that I fear Harry is coming down with / has swine flu, that Tully is showing signs that she might be poorly in the next day or two. What's the betting that despite paying for childcare for 2 kids Mark and I will be looking after both on Tuesday at the same time as sorting out the move...?