2008: good riddance.

I was going to write a little looking-back on 2008 post, however I decided I want to take the chance here to pay tribute to my mum, who has gone through so much this year, and who is an inspiration to me every day of my life.

It was a chain of events which began in July with my mum going to hospital for a minor operation, she then suffered a heart attack. Two weeks later she needed another (allegedly minor) medical procedure which caused a blood clot, which required an emergency operation to remove it.

There have been other health setbacks for her since then: but despite these she is an amazing, strong and courageous woman who will not be beaten. She has never lost her sense of humour. She is thankful that she has been given a second chance: I hope that 2009 is a happy and healthy year for her. Her experience made me realise that you shouldn't get stressed out by the things that don't matter.

2008 wasn't all bad, there were personally some good things - holidays, weight loss, recognition for Planet Salem; but it would be fair to say that the personal bad stuff outweighed the good. And don't even start me on the credit crunch, the world recession and high street stores going bust one by one. And don't even start me on the broken boiler....yes that's right folks, once again this useless substandard (insert swear word of choice) has broken down meaning we've had no heating or hot water for almost 24 hours, and we don't know if anyone will be out to fix it tonight. EDIT: we had about 72 hours without heating or hot water, but thankfully it's been repaired again (well, till the next time)

This will probably be my last Random Ramblings post of 2008: sorry to end on such a downer, but that's the kind of year it's been. Still...new year, new start...Things can only get better!!!!

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009 everyone. X

Christmas = :))))

It was rather fabulous.

Spending Christmas with my loved ones: I can't ask for anything more.
And Santa was very good to me too :)))))

It's been absolutely wonderful. And as if that's not enough, we also had a great result at the Matalan sale today!!!

I'm just going to enjoy chillling out tomorrow before returning to work on Monday.

The boys of the NYPD choir still singing 'Galway Bay'...

...and the bells are ringing out for Christmas Day!


Yes it's nearly here...I've been off work for the past three days but to be honest it hasn't really felt like a holiday as I've been soooo busy.


Monday: haircut and food shopping.



Tuesday: buy new hi-fi, then have to do major surgery on my electronic-gadget-overloaded bedroom to find a space for it. Very nice though...and sounding great. Manages to play all my CDs and it has an iPod dock. Mmmm....nice.


Wednesday: a lie-in then housework and getting ready for Santa's visit. Santa texted me on his way home from work today!! He'll be coming over in a couple of hours. Whoopeeee!


I'm so excited - I really love Christmas Eve.


Anyway I'm off now to raid our considerable supply of sweets and chocolate biscuits and may be back on here tomorrow night, if not I'll definitely be back on Boxing Day.

Have a fab Christmas everyone!!

Back again...

Finished work on Friday but then it was into a very hectic weekend involving pantomime, wrapping Christmas presents and going out for pre-Christmas dinner to my favourite local Indian restaurant.

Today: I decided to treat myself to a trip to the hairdresser's, where they managed to transform my fringe from forlorn to fabulous, and cut enough layers into my currently shoulder-length hair to keep me going until...my next visit, whenever that may be!!

Next stop - Tesco, for the pre-Christmas food shopping. Trying not to look too smug that we only needed to buy the basics, unlike some who needed not one trolley but two.

Tomorrow it's all go once again as I head out to buy my new micro hi-fi, as my current, trusty old "music centre" can't cope with the CDs I'm feeding it anymore. Or is it trying to tell me something lol :)))

Burnout!

As I said over at EuropeCrazy I'm taking a few days out of blog-posting (although I'll still be visiting all my blog-friends and leaving the odd comment or two). Normal (!) service will be resumed on Monday 22nd.

Pre-Christmas preparations + work stress + totally unrelated events = burnout!!

This is probably one of the most useless things ever, a blog post to announce a break from blog posts :O

Anyway this is my last day at work and I'll now be on holiday till the 29th - YAY!!!!!

Mother of three (blogs) / Three people in this marriage

Just taking stock of my status as mother of three blogs: there is the lively toddler just about to hit the 'terrible twos' in March; there is the middle child who has recently become more demanding over recent weeks and will probably require all my attention for part of next year; and there is the baby, who sleeps for most of the time, wakes up and has a look around and then goes back to sleep.

Just as well I'm not a real parent and only a virtual one!!

Whilst comparing real families to virtual ones, I found a great post here at Blogging Without A Blog which describes an extreme scenario where there are, as someone once said, 'three people in this marriage'. In this case: a man, a woman and a blog.

Maybe it's just as well that I'm not married - faithful travelling companion would probably list 'Sitemeter addiction' as grounds for divorcing me!!

Same old same old

This weekend sees the annual ritual of the office Christmas night out. I used to be an enthusiastic participant but bailed out about 6 years ago and haven't really regretted it. Whilst it's nice to get all glammed up for the evening, you begin to wonder if it's all worth it - you sit down to overpriced conveyor-belt food, followed by dancing to music so predictable you're wishing the DJ had been shot at birth. Did you really go to all that trouble to get ready so that you could dance to the same music which has been played at every wedding and every party since the year dot?

I happened to mention to one of my work colleagues today that I wasn't going to the party, and he asked if it was "because they're not playing any European music?". I thought that was quite funny and my mind started to wander...

Imagine if I got to programme the music for the Christmas night out? Why have the Drifters, "Mustang Sally" and "Angels" when you could all be bopping around to BWO, Alcazar and Christophe Willem? ;)

There's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes.

I heard that saying over the weekend....it's so true at this time of year!

We had a little but of snow overnight. One snowflake and everything comes to a standstill. Why is this country never prepared for winter?