yes i've had an evening wasting time on the internet

thanks to paul, I've just split my sides at these fantastic reviews on amazon. You may well already know about it but I had to spread the word just in case. trust me it's worth the mouse click....

oh boy oh boy oh boy

i've just found the BEST flickr group ever here my work here is done.

oh boy. top night.

we drank verious forms of cocktails, helpfully created by the master team (commonly known as Rada. John G and John E). We socialised and gossiped. We crammed 32 people into our house. we danced to "let's hear it for the boy" and we finally crashed and burned about 3am.

we then had to face the carnage this morning..... (but it was sooooo worth it). Cocktails rule!

evidence in photo format sometime this week.....

there's a lot of alcholol in this house. it could get messy

this weekend I have been mostly binge-drinking.

working in an office in a small warehosue style building in the middle of boscombe down, one of the flattest parts of the country, was not the most pleasant experience today. At times I felt like I was Dorothy about to be whisked off away from Kansas to Oz.

There's no place like home....

decisions

we're off to London in February to do the tourist bit. I promised Paul as part of his birthday present last May to take him on the London Eye and (cunningly) I have also noted that there's a Miffy exhibition on at the V&A Museum which finishes in March so I needed to get my skates on. He's accepted the futility of putting up a fight on this one and is taking the "if you can't beat them...may as well get a weekend away out of it" approach, bless him!

Anyway, we have spent the evening pondering on places to stay, weighing up the ridiculous costs of hotels centrally with the benefits of locality, compared to the cheaper ones that sit way outside the centre. It soon became apparent, however, that despite our attempts to make solid judgements based on fair and appropriate criteria (we both like to look at the reviews of places on Tripadvisor and Venere), when it came down to it, we were both influenced by the same thing - bedlinen. Yes hoteliers of the world take note... you can have the nicest website, the best prices and fantastic locality, but if you've got a picture on your website of a double bed with a dark tartan/pink flowery/or depressingly striped bedcover, you ain't getting our custom.

And to think I spend hours training managers on how to recruit employees based on objective criteria and not "gut feeling". I'm so ashamed.

sheesh, you think you know someone....!

it's all very exciting. apparently some long lost relative of mine that I have never heard of before has been tragically killed in a car accident somewhere in Africa. not entirely sure where exactly as there seems to be some discrepancy over the exact location. Anyway, the nice helpful solicitor has finally managed to contact me through the use of the amazing technology of the World Wide Web (where would we be without it eh). This solicitor (actually there's a few of them but we'll not get bogged down in details) has helpfully advised me of the fact that this long lost relative has an estate of somewhere within the region of $14 - $23 million, of which I am the beneficiary. As I said, it's all very exciting. So I'm off to fax all my personal details to this guy (or - to make sure I might send it to all 7 of them) so that I get the cash. If you don't hear from me again I'm on a beach in Bali.


or maybe not... :)

mmm curry. must rememeber to remid Mad to chew next time though.

programme for the year is set, with lots of fun plans for cycling, karting, theatreing and oh a bit of service work too.

The Chicken was on the move last night..... there may be some updated photso at some point....

Champagne SuperNova

I'm usually struggling to motivate myself to do anything on a monday evening me. Having missed the first ten minutes of Waking the Dead on sunday, it meant that I was at a total loss for the rest of the programme and therefore had no great desire to watch the second half last night. luckily I had a better option.... a night out!

My weekend seems to have moved a bit out of kilter, with friday and saturday spent on my sofa doing nothing, and then last night and tonight full of social activity and excitement. Curry tonight, and a meal out for sax's birthday last night.

Last night was exceptionally funny and entertaining, not least by the fact that it was a champagne special evening at the fatastic Storyteller restaurant in Cheltenham. Now for a girl like me, who is allergic to champagne, that wouldn't normally be my choice of evening out. However it did mean I could watch the others get slowly more and more drunk on the tasters of champagne (for a bargin price as well) whilst ALSO getting to eat fantastic, non-champagne-related-food. Sax was very impressed with my present of a dayglo/flashing armband to wear whilst jogging at night, so much so that she wore it as a dog-collar - she was also suitably embarassed when we sang her happy birthday in the restaurant and they bought out a cake. all in all, a definately more enjoyable way to spend a monday evening.

We've both been working on our laptops sat on the sofas this evening. i've just asked paul to make me a cup of tea by e-mail.

this doesn't bode well....

i've been playing with my new camera.... it's ace.

Blimey!

I ordered my camera at about 4pm yesterday afternoon. Didn't choose any special delivery options. It arrived at 7.20am this morning. That's almost the level of instant gratification you get when doing normal shopping! well done Jessops and Initial City Link.

january sales

I'm not a fan of January sales. The idea of queueing up in the rain for hours, elbowing scary women in leggings with baggy knees and battling with grannies to buy the crap that no-one wants in December doesn't really appeal. However, during the new year trip to wales I managed to drown my (already-knackered-but-working-passably-enough-not-to-justify-buying-a-a-new-one) digital camera. Should have used a dry bag inside my nice new rucksack. although, to be fair I don't own one as it's an achievement getting me to use a rucksack in the best of weather let alone hailstorms. But the canoe boy had one. Just didn't think. Oops. But in retrospect it was an achievement really as it allowed me to spend my Christmas money on a shiny new Canon digital camera. And the beauty of it was that it WAS in the sale, BUT I got it online, so I didn't even have to fight any old grannies or over-zealous NEXT shoppers to get it but it was a good price. Now, though, I'm waiting impatiently for the postman to deliver. In general I have to admit I prefer the immediate gratification of normal shopping. Passing over the cash/credit card and walking away with the product in my hand. It's a female hormone thing. But where January sales are concerned I think this is the way forward.

day 2 of back at work

it's slightly better than day 1 I guess.

Highlights of the festive season

Well I had a good break, hope everyone else did! Some of the highlights:

pre-Christmas get-together with friends to celebrate Sarah’s birthday. Chinese food is such a blessed relief in the middle of turkey dinners and Christmas puddings. I forced Sax and Emma to sit and watch "a Muppet Christmas carol" with me on the Saturday. whilst eating mince pies. This has to be my favourite Christmas film of all time. Sod ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, this is the one to get me in the mood!

Christmas Eve was spent in Paul's local back in Water Orton.... not too scary an experience! then on Christmas morning I amazed Paul and his brother by heading out for a quick run. I wanted to have a good nose around the village really as it's got some lovely houses. Also a good excuse to then eat loads of food and chocolate! Later on we went over to Sally and Jon's where I subjected him not only to my family but also Jon’s family - nothing like throwing him in at the deep end! Boxing day was back to Mum's for the 25 person sit down meal and general chaos that is the Haigh Christmas. Best presents were:

Itrip (unfortunately I got three but they were all appreciated!),
Gary Barlow autobiography!!!!,
Large soft toy of miffy
plus many more things that I can't recall due to the amount of alcohol that has since been consumed!


After Christmas the excitement didn't let up, with gatherings of Sagga old and young'uns. We went round to the Bishop's in Painswick, where we caught up with them and the Blands, Including the kids - Heather, Jim, Wendy and Steve plus me and Rach. Now it's been a while since that happened. We were able to have a private tour of the Painswick church bell tower which gave a fantastic view of the surrounding area. At one point in time, with Jim and his dad discussing the intricate workings of the church bell system i had a flashback to NorthWest Sagga events of bygone years and realised how little things change!

Wednesday evening was spent in a favoured pub called the Green Dragon which does banoffee pie to die for! Thursday was back up to Paul's bro and sis in law to see them, then Friday we headed up to North Wales .

What can I say about new year? Well, as I imagine most people will have experienced, it was a bit soggy! But good fun and relaxed all the same. We went up to Deinolien in Snowdonia, to a lovely place which easily fitted the various Sagga families. This was the first time I had visited it and I can see why they have used it a few times. Private bathrooms in bunkhouses are an impressive feature!

We attempted 2 walks, the first one was somewhat thwarted by the torrential hailstorms which began just as we had kitted ourselves out and started to walk across the car park. Still, despite the pain of the hailstones, we battled on regardless and did the shortest option round the lake and back, before parting with the keener lot to return to base for some warmth and a good book (Gary Barlow kept me company a lot this new year!). The Sunday was even worse as it was simply wet and windy without the novelty of hailstones! Again we did a short walk then abandoned the keener people to return to the pub where we met up with Clr, Ed and Phillip. The keener crew (Jonathon W and Dave Heale) took slightly longer than anticipated and forced us to remain within the establishment for more time than we had planned. Obviously we were dying to get out there and do something worthwhile (or actually maybe go and find them if they were lost) but the lure of the warmth and beer was too great! Luckily they eventually appeared and we were not forced to spend out new years eve wandering the hills in search of them!

New years eve itself went surprisingly quickly, with a lovely meal, some excellent new games and a hearty helping of wine and chocolate fondue. We returned back to base nicely refreshed, if a little less exercised than planned. Hey ho, bring on 2007….