Stick It In The Family… Album
Partner and D1 (stands for eldest daughter) have gone darn sarf for an interview at Essex Uni tomorrow. And on the way back they pick up a whole bunch of photos from my aunt.
Really excited about getting hold of these, scanning them and uploading to my manly Flickr account. Of course, I’m not telling you where that is and they’ll be tagged for family viewing only, so there!
Problem is, I shouldn’t be doing anything with them as there’s too many other “things” going on right now. Gotta have a peek though. :)
With the family disappearing off to countries new I desparate for them to wake up to Flickr so we can all keep abreast of each others busy lives.
But a lot of them being teachers, or ex-teachers, I’m wondering if they can cope with all this “new” technology.
We’ll see…
Done Deal
You know how it is, just use the credit card to bail yourself out temporarily, and before you know it sky-high interest rates and compound interest make it a real struggle to get rid of the debt.
Apparently, the credit card companies call us revolvers - people who never pay off the debt, but keep making the payments - they love us. Wonder why?
Well, not any more. Just consolidated an existing loan with my credit card (note use of singular) debt and now on 6.7% straight interest, fixed for the term of the loan. Can pay off early with no penalties.
Gonna save a fortune. :) Been a loyal customer of the credit card company for god knows how long - not any more!
Loan company have shit tea though. Still, can’t have it all ways.
Christmas Bird
Merry Christmas everyone!
Today’s been perfect.
Bubbly for breakfast. Opening presents altogether as a family.
Turkey, all the vegetables I enjoy like swede, brussels, parsnips and roast potatoes. A delicious Graves wine.
The company of family friends. Just makes me appreciate how good life is.
I was going to make this a post about what I’ve been up to lately, and a few thoughts on where I am right now, which is a pretty good place to be - but all that can wait ’til nearer the end of the year. You know, the dreaded sentimental look back at the year that was etc..
Hope you had a fantastic day too.
Rotherham Weekend 2007
Do you know how it feels when you write a long post and then just before hitting the button you lose it all? I’ve done my fair share of swearing, but not tonight.
The computer shutdown. But I don’t mind, because my eldest daughter is still alive. What happened? She was drying her hair and the hairdryer cut out - so she bent down to untwist the lead near the plug. Next thing she knows is she’s sat on the floor with thick black smoke marks running across all four fingers and thumb.
I heard a big bang, I thought WTF, the computer went off and I rushed into her room. She was getting up off the floor and ran into the bathroom to stick her hand in cold water. Fortunately, she’s just a bit shaken and there are no burns.
I took the plug apart and it looks as though the lead, where it’s clamped to the plug, had worn through and had probably shorted. My guess is that when she tried to untwist it she brought the brown and blue wire into contact, which caused the main fusebox to trip. The outer casing has melted and the inner blue and brown wires are exposed. That girl lives an exciting life!
Now to more mundane things.
Those that know me are aware that unless I’m going out somewhere I don’t frock up. I just don’t find sitting or prancing about the house particularly rewarding, so I don’t bother.
But March is leaving it too long and I’ve been getting a bit crotchety lately so I’ve been looking forward to The Rotherham Weekend: This is not a Beaumont Society run event, but Janett Scott (now ex-president) organises it.
I went last year to give away Vanessa to Jan in a civic ceremony and to my surprise enjoyed the weekend. Of course the ceremony itself was quite emotional, but the weekend as a whole was grea The Friday and Saturday dinners were excellent as was the 60s/70s/80s disco afterwards.
Moving on, I took the opportunity to look round Meadowhall on Tuesday whilst waiting to collect my daughters from a gig at the Arena. And struck gold at “West One”. Saw a gorgeous red dress in the window, but unfortunately they didn’t have one in a 12. But the girl was very helpful and said she’d ring round the other stores in the morning and took my number.
I didn’t get a call Wednesday and thought I wouldn’t hear from them, but on Thursday she came up trumps - the right size at The Trafford centre in Manchester, yay! Downside, it wouldn’t arrive ’til Tuesday at the meadowhall store.
A bit of quick thinking, and I told them I would be in Manchester on Thursday, could I pick it up either on the Friday or Saturday? I could. I called my friend Helena, asked her if I could come over Friday night, which was OK. Brilliant.
Saturday morning Trevor and called in at the store (he excused himself to go and look for trainers, chicken) and I bought it and headed for the loos to make sure it fitted (I’m a chicken too for not asking to use the changing rooms). It did fit, fortunately.
Back to Trevor’s where I had a big de-fuzzing session before heading off to Rotherham. Cutting a long story short I arrived just in time to change for dinner at 7 sharp. Vanessa and Jan did a brilliant job of keeping me calm and the result is what you see in the piccy.
The dinner was just as good as last year and this time I won a bottle of scotch in the Children in Need competition where we had to roll pound coins at the row of spirits - I got closest to the whiskey. We raised £61 all together.
After dinner I had a number of people compliment me on the dress (not the contents) even a dressmaker who wanted to see how it was made.
I ended up talking to Angela (a Rotherham Regular) ’til 4 in the morning. So it’s early to bed tonight.
Would I go again? I think I would. Mind you my guess is I was one of the youngest there, and I’m no spring chicken. ;-)
Back On Track
Wow, over two months since my last post. Aren’t you lucky!
And a busy couple of months it’s been. BTW, the title has nothing to do with the previous entry.
No, it’s just that I had a “run in” with certain authorities - in a financial sort of a way. As in we’d like you to pay us PDQ or we’ll asset strip you. Not the sort of stripping I find particularly sexy.
But… it did help focus my mind and at the same time a new working relationship developed out of a much older one, which meant the repayment schedule finished two weeks early. :)
Out of all that has come a much more organised system for keep certain government departments happy, bless ‘em.
So, all-in-all I’m pretty chuffed with the outcome.
BTW, this is leading up to a confession. You see when I have “things” on my mind I tend to focus on getting them sorted and everything else goes out the window. It continues to amaze me that friends don’t get fed up and adopt a “bugger him” attitude, as unless they stay in touch and badger me it can be quite some time before normal service is resumed. So a big thanks to all you guys ‘n gals who continue to be patient with me beyond the call of duty.
Anyhoos, it’s official. Happy Days have returned once again. :))