a Sunday summary

I have been having a busy week, hence the lack of any blog posts from me. Have been utterly skint and incapable of getting to my usual source of free wifi (Caffe Nero, I love you). Then, when I did have funds my time was taken up with more planning for other stuff.

 

Also I spent a lovely morning with friend V doing birthday present prospecting, yarn shopping and lunching with friend L and her littlies. I had a fabulous time and I had the selfish delight of having V to myself for a couple of hours which never happens any more!

 

I have now acquired everything I want for madam's bday on Friday (18th). I have gone with a new outfit, a fleece onesie thing with penguins all over it, and the Lalaloopsy doll that she saw and fell in love with. The doll proved the hardest thing to track down as all the shops were out of stock of that particular one. I eventually ordered it from Amazon as even Tesco, who were advertising it, didn't actually have one when I tried ordering it.

 

It is a special one as it was created for National Cat Day which happens to be October 29th and as madam is an October baby and mad on anything feline, it was the logical choice :) Her name is Whisker's Lion Roar which is preposterous, but madam loves these dolls. If you feel like having a gander the link is here.

 

She is meant to be arriving on Tuesday, I *really* hope she isn't late or I shall start to panic. I was looking at a few on ebay, but they are nearly all the same price as in the shops or more, and then ludicrous amounts in P&P because they're heavy. I gave up on that in the end.

 

Now I just have to make a birthday cake and wrap everything up...

 

I did weather charts and rain gauges with the Guides on Friday as further badge work. Next week we're doing a wide game that involves clues so that we'll be ready for the treasure/scavenger hunt around town the week after! I also handed in my application form for midday supervisor at one school and picked up an application for the same at madam's school. I have just seen an advert in town for a coffee shop too. That's a shop that sells coffee, not a café as I first thought it was.

 

I have been wondering about setting up another blog which will be about madam's fashion choices as she keeps me endlessly amused with what she wears and has the ability to make most things look good. The idea comes from one of my favourite Pinterest boards. The My Imaginary Well Dressed Toddler Daughter board is full of child modelling photos with added captions. It makes me giggle, a lot. 

 

But it started me thinking about the whole child modelling thing and madam's love of posing and dressing up. It would probably be a once a week post and I was thinking of making it a proper fashion blog and breaking her outfits down. It might be quite funny. Sadly, I will have to miss out some of these gems...

 

 

 

and just wait for her personality to shine on through. For example, today she has spent dressed up as a skeleton. No, it's not Halloween for another few weeks, but that is not going to stop her!

 

When I have it up and running I shall let you all know :)   

a viking adventure

I had a slight misunderstanding about what yesterdays school thing was about. There is now a scale model Viking boat in the upper school playing field at madam's school (I only ever really go in the foundation stage area atm, so hadn't *really* noticed it).

 

So, yeah, we got to school and there were a few stalls around making balloon swords and other Viking accoutrements. As I have *no* cash until Tuesday I had to march madam past everything. She has a wooden Viking sword at home and if I'd thought we could have brought that with us.

 

Madam instead went straight for climbing over the boat which is big enough for a whole heap of kids to play out any number of fantasies. She commandeered the prow and made the most of her position to order the surrounding populous around. They mostly just ignored her.

 

 

 

She then met up with a chum of hers from her class and they went careening off into the wooded area at the back of the field and spent the majority of the hour or so we were there collecting conkers and jumping all over the tree stump seats and things that are along the nature trail. She did manage to come back in time to have her photo taken for the local paper (not just her, it was a group shot). I mainly sat on one of the benches and supervised her coat!

 

After I managed to persuade her to leave, which she only agreed to when she realised that we were pretty much the only people there, we headed home for a bit of a chill before dinner. We had decided to make a fruit crumble (plum and strawberry) for dessert. But I had this rush of blood to the head and decided that even though crumble is becoming a bit of a signature dish for me we should have something different.

 

I had already pretty much made the crumble topping when I decided this so had to improvise what I was going to turn it into. I went with shoving a splash of milk in and turning it into a sort of scone dough. I (of course) put too much milk in and ended up desperately adding flour to try and dry my dough out a bit! I made it into little flattened balls and put them all around the top of my fruit. You know, bit like a cobbler.

 

I have no idea if I even vaguely made the right thing, but what we ended up with tasted really great and was a change from the same old, same old. I shall make it again, but perhaps in a small deeper pan. That way the topping might join together better and the fruit won't all stick to the underneath!

 

We did go to the Harvest Festival this morning after all. And it was nice to see the display of food that had been brought in. Madam was particularly taken with the wheat sheaf they had right in the centre of the altar display. All the food collected today is going to the churches newly formed food bank. This is the same for madam's school service on Wednesday.

 

the main table with all the food was off to the side!

 

 

After the service we wandered along to the food festival, but it was so busy and loud that madam wasn't keen. There was a barbecue/grill going that was smoking wildly as well. We didn't stay long and we didn't find any free samples... Boo ;) 

 

We ended up going to mum and dad's a bit earlier than normal and madam has mainly been riding her bike and getting under peoples feet since then! We have taken her for a ride out to the supermarket in the hope of finding her some more school t-shirts as she's ruined some of them already. They had none in, annoyingly, then we took her to the park on the way home. She is now (finally) sitting quietly. I'm hoping she might be tired enough to go to bed to time this evening.     

shop til you drop and never be boring

I decided to give myself a couple of days away from blogging as that last post kind of got a bit intense.

As it turned out I was so busy on Tuesday I wouldn't have had any time to even attempt to squeeze out a post. The reason? I shopped! And I really hit it, madam and I had a whole day in Hull so that I could go round everywhere I wanted.

 

I started by taking madam to the cinema for the kids showing in the morning. It was The Croods, which we have actually seen once before, but she'd loved it so going to see it was still a treat. We then had a slight bus fail in that the first stop we waited at was only served by buses in the evening (there was no signage at the stop, and I'd been told they were every 15 minutes).

 

So we had to walk over to the big Asda nearby and got on the first bus that came past. This bus was also a bad choice. We went around all the estates in that part of the city (Kingswood, Bransholme and Sutton Park) and then finally into the city centre.

 

By which point madam was ready to eat her own arm so we headed straight for lunch. We probably both ate twice as fast as normal! Never mind... So then I got to shop :) I went in the first shop and there was so much stuff I liked it was a bit hard to know where to start! I did steer myself away from the beautiful formal dress that had a butterfly wing print on it. But it was hard. I also stepped away from a cute owl print dress that I wasn't sure about the colour of.

 

But I did find a beautiful purple jersey dress that had only come in that morning. A couple of pairs of leggings as mine are all very tired. A pretty, dark blue top with a bird print. Then we moved on. I took madam into Princes Quay and promised her an ice cream from the shop she likes.

 

Sadly, their freezer was broken and they only had some mango sorbet, which madam didn't fancy... So she was dragged around the shop I wanted to go in in there with the promise that the very next thing we did would be find her that ice cream.

 

She amused herself by trying on some very large bras and rearranging their sale footrwear! I got a pair of slouch jeans that are ridiculously comfy and may be my favourite pair of jeans ever! They're not very smart though (obviously). And I picked up a set of bracelets that were in a half price basket by the till. They were prices at £12.50 but went through the till at £3! Bargain.

 

 

 

The only place I could think of that would definitely have ice cream that wasn't too much further was Thornton's. So we sat outside in the sunshine and at large and drippy cones :) It was good...

 

I then wandered along to New Look in the hope of finding another cheapo watch. But they didn't have any. Madam mainly tried on handbags and cuddled the legs of some of the mannequins! She's a bit odd, that one!

 

I took her into a memorabilia shop as I wanted to get her something wee for behaving so well for me. But it was all just that bit more than I wanted to pay, or inappropriate. Though she was really desperate for me to get her a Wonder Woman teddy thing. Too expensive, and she does *not* need any more teddies!

 

So we went to HMV to see if they had a cheap DVD she might like. And they did! She went and chose Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, without any influence from me. I found Willow so we got that as well :)

 

By which point we were exhausted and headed home for tea!

 

Yesterday, we went to the local Freeport in Hornsea (an outlet village) and got madam some shoes for school. And my dad bought us an ice cream (it's been a bit of an ice cream week!). I also got handed a bag and told I'd bought dad his Christmas present. Which was generous of me...

 

Today we went to a Teddy Bears Picnic at the Country Park. We were lucky that the weather held out for us this week, as last week's Butterfly Safari had been a washout. Madam did some painting and she had her face painted. She insisted she needed to be a purple cat. With pink details. She didn't want to be boring...

 

 

 

There is never any fear of that with madam around! We ate our picnic whilst watching the puppet show and then because we were both quite hot and weary by this point (there wasn't very much shade where we were) we decided to pack up and head back to my parents to give the car back. We did force ourselves to have an ice cream to cool us down on the walk back to the car though...

 

So, what have you been up to?

 



a film that left a big impression

Isn't it fun getting stuff through the post :) My shoes that mother cajoled me into buying have arrived... They're fab, comfy and actually a really great colour (I was a bit worried about the pewter). I have not had a chance to wear them yet though, as I have been to the gym for an introduction/look-see kind of thing.

 

 

 

I have now signed up though, so my proper induction is next Tuesday (it better not be too hot!) It's a Gymophobics gym and promises me I only have to do a 30 min workout 3 times a week. Also, I have a voucher for a massively discounted sign up/first month payment! I owe it to myself to find time to go. It's right in the centre of town, so there is no trekking to the leisure centre annoyingness. I can fit it into my day a lot easier.

 

I don't dislike going to the gym, per se, but the cardio workouts never seem to make much difference and this is more about resistance/toning. This is what my big, flabby belly needs! I walk everywhere as it is, so I get a cardio workout everyday! Mum has been a member for a little while now and has lost nearly 3 stone and dropped about 3 dress sizes as well. She's feeling much fitter, healthier and happier with herself.

 

Which I would like to feel about myself too!

 

My dad and I have gone into manic planning mode to get ready for our trip to Driffield show on Wednesday. He and I are definite planners, though he is more inclined to actually follow through on his plans than I am! I like to know there is a plan I can fall back on, but am more able to go with the flow than he is!

 

We are driving my mum insane by planning out what sandwiches we'll need, drinks, picnic rugs etc. You'd think she'd be used to us by now... It's funny that it's me the manic planning rubbed off on, as I am the queen of procrastination and almost never follow my plans exactly. I am terrible at organisation because of this. Though being able to organise a small child is definitely an achievement in itself!

 

Last night I watched a film called Hugo. It's based on the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik. And I loved it. I am a real film fan and love the escapism that films bring me. And this film was actually about that in part. It's a fact based film, in that one of the main characters and his backstory etc. is true to life. The rest of the film is imagined around him.

 

It tells the story of a lonely little orphaned boy named Hugo Cabret (that's a surprise, right!) who lives within the walls of the train station in Paris. He is looking to repair a machine as he believes it contains a message from his dead father and that search brings him into contact with a gentleman named Georges Melies (this is the real dude).

 

He, along with Georges' goddaughter find out who Georges used to be and how he has ended up owning a toy booth at a train station. They help him to find his way back and in the process Hugo finds friends and eventually a family. It was an amazingly moving film. I always find films about loneliness hard to watch without crying. But this was so beautiful. It's a Scorsese film, but not like anything he has ever made before.

 

And all the way through the film is punctuated by these wonderful clips from very early films. And they are so incredible and the imagery is so impressive. Its a love story to them in a way as well. The eventual revelation was again based on real life. Georges Melies really was discovered working in a toy booth at the train station. He really was one of the pioneers of early cinema. You may never have heard of him (I certainly hadn't) but you will know one of his most iconic images...

 

 

 

 

And if you can't see that link, you will have to make do with just this picture which is from hungary.art.pl

 

 

 

 

And if you still don't know who I'm banging on about, check him out on YouTube. His films are wonderful...

jobhunting for the tech savvy

I started this post on Tuesday and I was going to add in a link to the Universal Jobsearch website. Which is the point where I interacted with the Jobsearch website. And wow. Now, I'd heard before how awful it was, but I foolishly thought that I would be ok, I mean, c'mon, just how bad could it be.

Awful.

I couldn't get it to register me, and then when it did do it, it wouldn't let me back in as it said the email address was already registered! Yeah, that was me... Now let me in! But it wouldn't. And even when I tried just running a search it refused to tell me how to apply to the job I'd seen. By the time I'd finished arguing with it I had come to the point of no return and had to pack up and head to my Work Focussed Interview (WFI).

Now, if you've never been unemployed then I am envious of you, and if you're on income support it's slightly different. You only have to attend once every six months for these WFI things. I'm up to 3 monthly as madam is nearly 5 and I will be moved to being a Jobseeker at that point.

So, I went to see my advisor, who is lovely, but completely pointless. I explained that 1, I can't get on to Jobsearch. 2, I can't input my skills, I had to use generic ones and miss out the qualifications I actually have as they're not in the options list. 3, the website is awful and threw me out just when I thought I was getting somewhere.

I mentioned my lack of faith in this whole "lets shove everything online" plan. And she agreed. There is one computer available at the Jobcentre which apparently is already booked solid, she has been locked out of Jobsearch as she had been on holidays and is waiting to be re-instated.

This meant she couldn't look up the vacancy I'd found, either. I mean, FFS what is the point... I couldn't find it on their silly touch screen things either. The lady gave me a list of other job search websites she would recommend instead!  We did a calculation as to whether I'd be better off working than on benefits and then I left again.

Advice given: well, she did know some other websites, I suppose.
Jobs nearer to being acquired: none.

Me, being me, I then had to go and do "joining in" at madam's nursery for half an hour, then we had to go and get the bus into Hull so that we could get the bandage removed from madam's hand. Why is it that everything is always on 1 day?

But the bandage is off, and her finger now just has a slightly larger than normal plaster on it. She is almost entirely back to normal and has been told to use her finger as much as she can. Of course, by the time we'd finished and walked back into the town centre we were just too late for the bus and had an hour to wait until the next one. So we tried again on the McDonald's toy front. And, finally, success! Sadly, they only had one version, but madam was just so happy with having one she wasn't bothered which it was!

We just need to watch Despicable Me 2 now...

I also popped into one of the shops and found me a new dress in the sales :) This makes a nice change as there are no shops in my hometown that I can really shop in. I just need to be about 5 sizes smaller and then I'd have no worries... (I do hate being this fat, but I can't seem to stop the comfort eating/eating anything not tied down thing).

And then when I tried to log back on to my computer when we finally got home it refused. It did the whole computer says no thing and wouldn't even start up properly.

Luckily as I was at my parents I managed to use their computer, log onto the website of the school I'd seen the advert for and print out the form so I could fill it in at my leisure... At least I had that option, I feel sorry for the people who are not tech savvy and have only one access point to the internet.

Yesterday, was mainly about my mum getting me to buy things! I'd seen a nice pair of shoes on ebay a few weeks ago, just everyday walking all over shoes, not too fancy. But they were purple. Mum saw them and made me buy her a pair and then got me to buy some for myself. Now I'd just been watching them thinking they were quite cool, but I didn't really need them...

Also, we found a really pretty shrug for me to wear to my cousins wedding that would go with the dress and shoes that I already have. I did get the money back from my mum for the shoes, but it was still £25 (altogether) down that I hadn't planned on spending...

I also bought some more fabric... Oops. This was just a metre of cotton poplin in Peacock. I shall use it to make madam a very simple summer dress...   

in which madam does making

I am so tired today! I have now dropped off about five times whilst sitting here trying to write. I could really do with a proper nap, but having madam bouncing about is not conducive to that... Currently she is sticking a whole load of glow-in-the-dark stars on to a piece of dark paper.

 

Its something she's been wanting to do for ages and yet somehow we never have got round to doing it. So now she's finally getting to do it. But apparently it involves an awful lot more supervision than I had thought. I mean, it's just putting stickers on to a big bit of paper, but you'd think it was much more complex than that...

 

Oh, and I'm not allowed to help. I am supervising whilst typing. Except I'm mainly shouting at her in frustration. She keeps jumping from one side of the paper to the other. She's already slipped and hurt herself so next she's going to rip the paper and ruin the whole thing.

 

She also keeps wandering off and then complaining when I threaten to put all the stuff away! I am slightly liking the new technique though. She's peeling off the stickers and then dropping them onto the paper to make a more random pattern.

 

I'm not appreciating the rain today. We went out earlier and opened the door to a torrential downpour. Had to get madams pack-a-mac out of my bag and put her in it. It has rained on and off ever since. She still wanted to sit outside and eat her lunch though! I refused and made us come up to my parents so that we could avoid being soaked and utilise their tv/internet facilities.

 

I had half thought about going for a walk later but, as the rain is currently flying sideways past the window, I'm going to wimp out. We have at least been into town and had a bit of fresh air.

 

We  also went to try and sort the meter out after the slight fail I had on Monday. And the key still wouldn't work, but I had taken the new one and that worked with no problems whatsoever. Bit of a relief given that the emergency credit has nearly run out.

 

 

 

Yesterday on our way home to put madam to bed we passed the most beautiful pink hawthorn tree and it struck me how late some of the blossom is this year. We'd noticed the pink horse chestnut was out on the walk to nursery the other day. I am sure they've usually all finished before now.

 

But we did have a late spring, I guess. It'll be interesting to see whether autumn is late getting going as well. There are some beautiful flowers coming out in the gardens locally now, my dad has some rather lovely roses beginning to bloom.

 

Madam has finished her picture off, and it's looking really cool. She is refusing to do smiling in photos again at the moment! So don't think she's not been having fun. She has now moved on to throwing a paper aeroplane around the room.

 

 

 

I guess I could make one of my own and join in... :)  

making a house a home

The weather has decided to be a little less obliging. It's not as warm and madam and I have gone for discretion as to weather we'll get soaked (it's gone quite dark and foreboding as well). We have had a wee walk already today. Back to our house to collect chargers and things and then up to the supermarket to get some stuff for lunch.

 

Madam is now complaining of being knackered so I'm not sure she'd enjoy a yomp this afternoon. In truthfulness I'm also fairly exhausted. I didn't sleep that well last night. Kept waking up and having to readjust myself. I do hate sleeping in the wrong bed...

 

Also, in a single bed, there is much less room for madam to wiggle round. She did start in the other bed but migrated into mine in the middle of the night as usual. I really have to get her to give up the habit when we have so little space! Funnily enough I'd dropped off really quickly for a change. Quite annoying to not then get a decent sleep...

 

I have to go into town later as well, so I can top up the electric meter and get myself some magnolia emulsion. The rental agency is coming (again) tomorrow and I'm in need of more touch ups to the walls. I have lost count of how many times I've told madam not to draw on them., But it just doesn't seem to sink in :(

 

So after town we're going in for a quick whip around and tidy up. It's really not that bad atm, I've been trying to keep on top of things as much as possible. And although there is loads of laundry still to do, it'll be fine.

 

We're going to watch the first Harry Potter film before we do anything though, I promised madam we would. It also means you get Richard Harris as Dumbledore :) Madam has watched this before but only a long while ago. She is mostly remembering that Dudley gets given a piggy tale for stealing the food!

 

She's also rather taken with him having a bedroom under the stairs... *plots a new home for madams* No, she wouldn't fit in ours! Lol.

(Disclaimer: I would never actually make my child live under the stairs)

 

I am actually blessed with a rather large understair cupboard, I have mainly just been using it for storage. But if it were actually my house you could convert that corner into a rather good office space.

 

You know, I do this all the time. I live in a rental house for a while and then start planning what I would do with the place if it were mine. I think I wish I lived in this house more than I have in any of the others (though I miss the garden from the last one). It's just the right size for me and madam, but it could do with a bigger kitchen.

 

Though for once it actually comes with enough cupboard space for real people it's just short on work surfaces. I would also quite like to explore the attic, I know it's up there, but I've never been. Lack of a proper set of steps. It would be quite useful for extra storage space!

 

Also, then I could paint it some slightly more interesting colours... The magnolia everywhere is a bit boring. I would at least like to make the kitchen yellow and the bathroom a nice blue. My bedroom would probably be a lilac sort of a shade and pale mint green for madam. Not sure I'd change the dining room and I can't think what would suit the living room... Shades of grey maybe...

 

Also its in a good location for us. Not too far from the schools we want to go to and the rents are only around the corner. Town is easy to get to and we're on a bus route. The only bad thing really is how close to the road we are, it's quite noisy too and I worry about madam and traffic! She's pretty good with roads though.

 

But you can't have everything, can you... I'm just sad they still want me to leave :( I still don't want to...


Bristol is still for me...

I have had a couple of days in Bristol with just madam and myself now, and other than proving just how annoying it would be if I actually had to live with K again full time, I've been loving it.

 

I like how friendly the locals seem. Madam and I spent nearly 4 hours (yes, really) in the hairdressers the other day getting madam's hair cornrowed. And we just chatted away and the hairdressers daughter played around with madam whilst we were waiting her turn.

 

I have been orientating myself as to where I am within the city. And although I could still easily get lost I know if I can just find the Galleries, I know the way home again! Madam has far more places to run away from me to though, which is much less good...

 

She spent so long at the hairdressers on Thursday I promised her she could have another pair of shoes for her build-a-bear (they're about the cheapest thing you can get in there!). And she picked some Cinderella-esque glass slippers, that she has been walking around in!

 

Himself has been winding me up good and proper for the last couple of days. He's doing that thing of reminding me just why I don't want to live with him anymore and also being a tw*t to madam as he's been spending no time with her. I don't know why he wanted us to visit, I really don't...

 

Oh, and then there's the fact he told us we would go to London today to see some friends. Now I had reservations about this idea as I thought he'd just use the chance to dump us with friends and then go off without us. But he never even managed to take us, he's just been in a horrendous mood since last night... Which he is mainly taking out on madam. Which is really, really pissing me off.

 

He's yelled at her and frightened her for the most pointless things. I know she drives me insane, but I can't bear to see him being horrid to madam when she isn't even doing anything that all 4year olds do. She is incapable of being quiet and sitting still, so why be surprised about it?

I shall be jolly glad to get gone tomorrow...

Things to do in Bristol in the rain

Yesterday it rained. And rained. And then, as if we weren't already wet and miserable, it rained some more.

 

I took the kids to Playspace in the morning and it was an epic endeavour. First of all, because I've only been once and that was 3 years ago, I took a wrong turn. And friend L's little boy didn't remember the way either. So I think we took the longest possible walk to get there.

 

And when we did we had a 15 minute wait just to be allowed in! I was fed up before we even got in there! We stayed about an hour and madam managed to get stuck at the top of the playframe! And as the only place I'd been able to sit was in a side room I hadn't seen and the poor thing had been shouting for me :(

 

One of the people who worked there helped her down and brought her some ice for her ankle. We went back to L's for lunch and then at about 3 headed back to K's to give her some peace and quiet so she could relax and get her head together.

 

Madam insisted that K took us out for tea and we headed for an Italian in the centre of Bristol. She insisted on wearing the very sweet dress that she'd been handed down from friend E. Whilst we were waiting for our food I was trying to get a nice smiley picture of madam, but she refused.

 

 

 

Instead she insisted on doing her best impression of one of the minions from Despicable Me. I later took that photo and did some editing on it with my PicsArt app, and I really like the results.

 

 

 

Sadly the poorly cough she's been working on for the last couple of days has really taken hold now and I fed her full of various remedies before bed. She seems to be less yucky snotty now at least though...

 

Today we went to the cinema to watch Wreck It Ralph which I've (sorry she's) been wanting to see since it came out. We then went to have completely unhealthy KFC for lunch and I let her go to the Build-A-Bear workshop this afternoon. We now have a pink teddy with hearts on her paws and inside her ears. She's called Lovely, apparently!

 

So now we're heading home again. Friend L has just text me to tell me the babies are here! I shall hopefully be getting to meet them asap!  

 



on country walks and puddings

I managed to go for my nice walk with madam in the sunshine yesterday. We went down to the Humber Bridge Country Park and walked part of the Pond Trail as we'd promised to go and see if the flooding had subsided.

 

It had indeed (finally) subsided back down to pretty much normal levels. The last couple of times we've been the ponds have been so flooded you couldn't get to parts of the path and the picnic tables have been completely submerged. So as it's been dry for a week or so we were hopeful.

 

The path was complete and madam could get down to the edge of the pond and join in with the other kids (and adults) who were skipping stones over the water. The main thing we noticed was the hide water line that was visible on all the trees around the edge of the water.

 

 

 

There was some suggestion that this white deposit could actually be limescale! The surrounding land is all pretty much chalk, so it wouldn't surprise me. Madam was having a great time throwing stones in to the water and we managed to find a spot near some deep water so she could make some really big splashes! Here she's trying to skip stones like the bigger kids...

 

 

 

 

She didn't exactly have the correct outfit for it on, but that didn't stop her! We all got to a far too hot point and decided to head for home and get an ice lolly :)

 

 

Madam and I then took her scooter out and had a quick trip to her new school so she could see how far away it is from our house. It isn't far at all, she was just worried it was. Hence the need for the walk. We then pottered (scootered) into town and got ourselves some yummy things to make pudding with from M&S. Along with some nice salad to go with our meatballs.

 

I made us some rather good dessert with our ingredients and some plums we've had in the fridge for a few days. They're called watermelon plums, but taste just the same as normal ones! Lovely deep red on the inside though :)

 

 

 

 

Slightly random display I've got going on there, but taking a photo into the bowl proved highly unsuccessful...

 



 

 







   

clothing the small child

I've been debating a "what my child is wearing" section to this blog, but I think that might only encourage her. Today she is wearing a dress which is black and white printed and I think looks like birds but she says looks like leaves. It has a neon pink ribbon belt and she has a pink cardi on. She has a butterfly headband on that I made her from a kit the other day and purple star print socks.

 

It is quite a sight to behold. For once I'm not allowed to take a photo of her, so I can't show you... The outfit in the picture is what she's going to wear to her cousins wedding.

 

We will be going up to the Country Park this afternoon as it's a lovely day and madam will need some form of exercise. She's not entirely appropriately dressed, but it'll be fine... We want to see if the flooding has finally abated. Madam was seriously amused by the fact there were picnic tables completely submerged last time we were there.

 

Currently she is glued to Mister Maker on Cbeebies so we're all getting a few minutes peace and quiet! She's really into making things and made a really quite good bee at nursery last week. Then, obviously, she has to write her name on.

 

Her handwriting is pretty good for someone who's not at school yet. She is encouraged to write whatever she wants at nursery and they do teach the letters of the alphabet. But they don't actually teach them to write. Or specifically to read either. Madam  is starting to do that, too. Slightly concerned she'll have nothing to do when she does get to school!

 

***I have to laugh, there is currently controversy as Mister Maker just drew a rainbow with the colours the wrong way round. So the red was on the inside and the violet the outside... She is not impressed.***

 

I have a parents evening to go to at her new school on the 4th June. I'll get to meet her teacher and have a look around the school. This is kind of exciting as it's my old school, which I mentioned the other day and I haven't been at the school since. It'll be nice to see just how much it's changed in 24 years! (It can't have been that long ago, can it?)

 

Then madam has two sessions to go and join in and get to meet her teacher and classmates. We have done an unintentional useful thing by having a blue gingham school dress which is actually school uniform standard. So I'll give you 3 guesses what she'll be wearing... That and her days of the week socks! ;)

 

I'm a little annoyed by the uniform as they're insisting she needs logoed stuff which costs a bomb. I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to do that. I should be able to just get some cheap stuff from the supermarket! I think we'll just be getting the jumper. I refuse to buy 2 cardigans for her when they're £13.45 each. It's bad enough the sweaters are a tenner!

 

And you know she needs two as she'll be having school lunches and will be wearing her lunch as well! Fortunately they look like they're quite generous sizes so hopefully they'll last a couple of years.

 

I actually hadn't really considered just how much stuff she'd need for school. There'll be a major buying session coming up, I can tell... There is all the other stuff on top of the uniform. She has an indoor and outdoor PE kit to get, a pair of indoor shoes and they want her to have a school PE bag and book bag as well!

 

And then I have to name it all... Oh joy.

 

Fun with friends

Had a lovely couple of days with friends. Friend H took a break from manic cycling training for her charity cycle ride in a fortnight to come and have a sleepover with madam. She's cycling in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the Huddersfield Town AFC Youth Academy and I'm very proud of her.

We have arranged with my parents to go and watch her cycle into Hull on May 1st and madam is really excited about it already!

H has been a super influence and helped with the tidying up no end. We also did some experimental baking and made a rich chocolate beetroot cake that has turned almost every piece of equipment in my kitchen pink! It tastes very nice though and although not completely perfect it was a good first attempt.

We did some new lunch type experiences too. We went to El Taco Loco in the St Stephen's centre in Hull on Tuesday. It was sooooo tasty! And not as spicy as I feared (I really am the most horrendous wuss when it comes to that kind of thing). We resolved to make friend V have it for lunch on Weds, but agreed to head for the rather yummy Rolando's instead.

We then had a lovely lunch and afternoon with V and H. Madam almost managed to behave, but I think the excitement of having two whole visitors rather overpowered her at moments.

She was very sad to see both of our guests go and is counting the days until we have another visitor to stay (she did request that auntie V move in with us). I'm just happy she's managed not to destroy all auntie H's hard work (yet).

So we are mainly going to be eating choc beetroot cake for the next few days and working on making the house more like a showhome. I have resolved to throw even more stuff out and I'm going to get rid of a load of madam's old and/or broken toys tomorrow morning whilst she's at my mum and dad's.

I also need to have a really good review of just how many books I can realistically fit in my house. I love books, and I believe a home is a better place with them in. But perhaps we don't need all of madam's baby books. And I know I have books on my shelves that I don't think I'll ever read again. 

I shall try and keep only the ones I know I will definitely miss if they went. Because I think there'll be so much more I could fill those shelves with instead! A long time ago I made a decision not to buy new books, just secondhand ones and I've mainly stuck to that. But I need to give back so that other people will have the ones I don't need. Seems only fair.

So, I think I might also need to go through my magazines and sort out which ones I actually need to keep (I do only keep knitting/crochet ones) and which ones have no patterns in that I will ever use...

Maybe I might even get round to cutting the patterns out and only keeping those bits. But it might take a while for me to get round to that bit...

A weekend of activities

 

 

 

I'm listening to the rather splendid writing soundtrack put together by YellowLittleDragon at the moment. Very soothing... I had a bit of an epic weekend. Need some chilled space in my head.

 

Firstly, the husband had in fact come up to visit. He came on Saturday afternoon and we took madam to Honeysuckle Farm out at Hornsea. And then, because he does actually have seemed to work out that what madam most needs from him is shoes and clothes, we went to the Freeport. Madam needed new shoes as her feet had grown again, so she's got some black patent school shoes and some sandals for if the weather stays nice.

 

Then we dropped round to see older brother (so kind of us!) and had a cuppa whilst madam played on his x-box. We then went to find some dinner and himself took madam for a new summer wardrobe at Asda. She has insisted on dresses (she's so girly in summer) and has now got about 5 different ones and a couple of tops, a tutu skirt and a little shrug.

 

But at least she won't need anything else now. Just hope the weather is nice for a few weeks at least!

 

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to church en famille although madam insisted on me coming to Sunday school with her so we left him by himself for the majority of the service. We then headed into Hull and went to the cinema. We watched The Croods which was really good and very funny. Well, that's what madam and I thought anyway...

 

We then decided on a trip out to Scarborough as the weather was so nice. Luckily madam slept most of the way there and woke up just as we arrived. We visited a couple of K's friends and then popped round to madam's godmother's. We got there just as they were having their tea so only had a quick hello and then we went to have ours. 

 

Forced ourselves to have fish and chips and then we got an ice cream from The Harbour Bar because it's aces. Madam then discovered the joys of the 2p machines and played until she'd won not one but two silly plastic owls. We totally missed the chance to go back and see her godmother as we were so late by that point.

 

She also managed to get a hoody made with her name on it. In rainbow foil letters. With sparkles. *sighs*

 

It's ma-hoo-sive on her (bit like the one she got years ago from Meadowhall when we went with her auntie H) but I'm not worried as she sure isn't getting any shorter. And it means she'll get the wear out of it. It's a fab purple colour, I heartily approve.

 

In fact I think we've avoided pink quite well this weekend. Good going for us, given how she still insists it's her favourite colour. So here she is, modelling it whilst she poses with that gorgeous sunset behind her. I had to make him stop so I could take pictures of it. It was just so glorious, it makes me miss Scarborough so much and so glad I'm from Yorkshire!

 

 

   

Sunday update

Yesterday I bought more storage boxes. Now this is a good thing for the most part as it helps with my tidying, but I'm meant to be getting rid of stuff not just making it neater... I filled the first one with my overflow yarn stash that I'd got out of the living room. So that was totally necessary.

I haven't decided what I'm putting in the second one. Fairly sure it won't take me too long to work it out. Madam has tried to claim it for toys, but that isn't happening. I've been thinking it's probably going to end up with my patterns and things in...

I let madam make my mum and dad an anniversary card for my parents last night. She spent ages covering it in stickers and then very carefully did writing on the inside and on the envelope. It was really cute. She has such a great concentration face, complete with stuck out tongue...

I reviewed my novel so far and have decided that chapter 7 is better than I had thought. I shall put it on the site in a bit. I also managed to remember a couple of things I'd put in earlier chapters that I need for later on! The next chapter has progressed some, but I need to think of the next clue and I don't really know what to do this time.

I can't decide whether to make another riddle or use a different idea this time. It would be nice to inject something else so that I can get the two parts of my plot to converge for the final part. I appreciate that if you haven't read chapter 7 you won't realise there are two parts to the plot yet! ;)

I've nearly reached 20,000 words and I'm worried that if I'm nearly halfway through I'm not going to have enough material to make my 50,000 word count goal. Especially as my total words I'm aiming for is 63,500 as I'd written 5 chapters before we started. Oh dear.

It's nice to know that my writing has inspired a friend to give it a go to. I don't think she's ready for a camp just yet, but there's another one in July she might like to try! You don't have to write 50,000 words either, there are a few people in my cabin that are aiming for much lower figures.

Last night, after having written for a bit I had to then do some crochet. Madam has asked me to make some pockets to put on her cardigan and also a couple of little flowers to spruce it up a bit. It's nice to see that she's getting into the customisation bug nice and early. I've been adding bits to her clothes since she was tiny.

I did, at one point, sew her name in teddy bear letters onto the back of one of her hoodies. I need to unpick all the letters before I get rid of the jacket as she wants to keep them. This was not something I had thought hard enough about at the beginning!

 

I started this post before lunch and it's now about 4pm. I have been shopping with mother and we've got madam a really pretty dress from Monsoon with a matching shrug. So that's her wedding outfit organised as well! She is going to need some shoes to go with it, but I'm guessing that won't be too hard. Even if we can't get matching she could wear white or silver...

 

I have also food shopped. Without a menu plan this week... I'll have to do it in reverse and hope I got most of the things I'm going to need, though obviously, I can top things up. I am going to be making easy pea and ham soup at some point, cause it's my favourite and I've got a hankering for it.

 

As I have spent far to long on this post I better share it with you all, I suppose!

 

Oh, and madam is currently in a shower cap with her hair slathered in conditioner and then mum and I are cutting it off. It needs done, she won't let me look after it properly and if we can start over it might be easiest. 

menu planning for pleasure

I have had a couple of days with no t'internet so I haven't been able to blog. It's funny how much I miss the access when I don't have it. I have not even been using the time that wisely... Just doing some chilling with madam and making meals for us both!

 

I think I'll be sticking with the meal planning as it worked really well for us this week. It also meant that even when I was feeling that I couldn't be arsed I knew that I had all the stuff in the cupboards and I just had to use it. There was none of the, crap, none of this goes together what can I cook moments...

 

So having decided that 1, chicken and broccoli pie kicks bum and 2, it creates quite a lot of washing up I shall take it off nexts weeks menu. But it'll definitely turn up periodically :)

 

I guess I'm very lucky that madam will eat pretty much anything except tomatoes (and then only raw ones are not acceptable) which does mean I can possibly be more experimental than others with small children.

 

Although this week, when we were at Morrisons, the lady at the till told us that they sold purple peppers! We so totally need to find a recipe for them to go in. I'm thinking chicken and chorizo bake! (This is the answer to most things at the moment!)

 

Apparently the purple peppers are a similar colour to the potatoes we've had before...

 

 

 

I've not tried mashing them, but they are fairly floury so I may have to make some form of cottage pie or something with them on. This could be fun.

 

The menu for next week will be slightly out of sink as madam and I will be on cat sitting duty from Tuesday. This means we will be staying at the rents. Good for access to wi-fi and tv. Bad for the fact the rents are taking the one car they now own and we'll be quite a long walk from town...

 

Apparently they will be leaving me some bus fares. Bonus. I have to find things to occupy madam with (and me) next week as she's still off school and will be climbing the walls as we haven't been able to do much because of the weather.

 

The other good thing about being at the rents is that I get access to the cupboards and kitchen equipment here. Mother has loads of exciting things for me to play with. Sadly, I'm mostly going to be playing with the slow cooker! Oh, and the dishwasher!

 

I am also meant to be at the counsellors next week, which I may have to cancel due to logistics and having madam with me.

 

Ooh, the traditional Good Friday fish has arrived! This year it's in the form of fish and chips :) Sometimes, life is really good!