Tuesday 8 January 2013

9 sleeps and ginger cats!

Only 9 sleeps until my youngest is home!  Yep I'm counting down,  This is one countdown I can cope with.  Someone (who shall be nameless but is a relative of mine and yes she will know I mean her ;) mentioned how long it was until next Christmas in a recent blog!  Not going there yet.  But 9 sleeps I can cope with.  I can even cope with the no of weeks until 2 people I know are about to give birth.  (about 10 and 12 weeks respectively.)

But the best countdown at the moment (excluding the 9 sleeps - got that one remembered yet?) is it's only 5 weeks 3 days to the next holiday.  And after that one it's only about 4 weeks until the next one.

Enough of wishing my life away.

Work anecdote for the day:  What do you do when you come down from your weekend home and forget to bring your work shoes with you?  You pop out and buy a new pair.  And try not to make a habit of it!

Message to self:  Don't let the nice friendly ginger cat follow you into the house when your own 2 cats are waiting.  This happened tonight - it greeted me as I got out of my car and followed me up our front path. I thought I had shooed it away but I was distracted by trying to sort out the 3 keys needed to get into the house and it sneaked past me.  My two cats both tried to pounce on it and it ran up the first flight of stairs.  It made to go further up but thought better of it and dashed back out the front door.  I felt awful because it was a friendly cat but now it's probably traumatised!  I just hope it found its way home ok although I have no idea who it belongs to.

Sunday 6 January 2013

Almost ready!

Well the christmas tree is down and the decorations boxed up.  Didn't make it to the loft today but they will soon.  Took lots of the clothes etc to the recyling bank today.  Our local Sainsbury's has a variety of bins including the usual glass and paper as well as plastics, batteries, light bulbs, small appliances and 2 large clothing/textile  bins that are provided by Oxfam.  I'm happy putting any old clothes in there because I know that if they don't think they could sell them in their shops they use them for things like insulation materials.  I lost count of how many bags I put in those bins today - Matthew has really had a good clear out!

He may be moving to Nottingham in the near future.  He is waiting for a formal grad scheme offer from the civil service - they spoke to him just before christmas and he is waiting for the letter.  Providing it all goes to plan he will be in Nottingham for the first year and then maybe in London after that.  As his girlfriend is near to Nottingham this is clearly an attractive prospect.  He's clearly been sorting out his clothes and his room with a possible move in mind.

So maybe I will only have all 3 back at home for a short while - only 10 days until Michael is home.

But tomorrow it's back to work!  My clothes are out ready and I dared to check my e-mails tonight.  The alarm is set, better get some sleep.

Saturday 5 January 2013

Catching the de-cluttering bug!

The de-cluttering bug is catching!  I've done loads during this holiday and today I managed to go through my wardrobe.  I was quite ruthless taking out anything I hadn't worn in the last year or so.  I even found a couple of things that I'd never worn!  But having decided I wasn't likely to wear them they were added to the outgoing pile as well.  Now I need to make a shopping list and do some retail therapy!

While I was busy doing this I could hear lots of movement in Matt's room as well as wardrobe doors opening and closing.  When I went down to investigate I found there were piles of clothes all around his room, including every bit of his bed.  He had been very organised and had made pile of each thing e.g socks, underpants, shorts, t-shirts etc.  He had emptied out his entire wardrobe/drawers etc.  The next step to the plan was to assess each type of clothing and throw out what he no longer wears, fits etc.

At the time of writing there are several black bags outside his room to get rid of but I'm not sure how much has found its way back into the wardrobes.  Hopefully he will be able to get in his bed tonight.

Rebecca has also been working in her room so this bug is definitely catching!

Tomorrow I need to get the Christmas stuff down and put away and load the charity stuff into the car.  There also needs to be an overall tidy so that I'm ready for work on Monday.  Did I just mention the w word? Help!

Friday 4 January 2013

Ladies should lunch!

I have been a lady who lunched the last two days.  It could get to be a habit apart from the slight problem of going back to work on Monday.

I and a few friends had agreed to meet up for lunch before going back to work and although I knew we'd talked about Friday (i.e. today, 4th Jan)  I had it in my head that it was to be on the 3rd so when I got a text yesterday asking if I could make a certain location at 2pm I assumed that I was right about it being the 3rd.  I've come to the conclusion you should never make assumptions!  I duly arrived at the venue and rang the organiser to check if she was already inside only to discover my error.  Lunch was planned for today, 4th.  Well it was a bit her error as well as the text hadn't specified a date but because that had already been agreed she hadn't seen the need to include it.  Confused?  Yes so was I.

Having gone to the effort of getting up and out I decided not to waste the time and went shopping for a few things that I needed and to have lunch.  Nothing fancy, just a sandwich and cake in one of the department stores but it was nice to sit back and watch the world go by for a bit.

Today we did have our planned lunch in an hotel restaurant and that was also good.  Lots of chatter, catching up on our Christmas and New Year celebrations etc.

The break is nearly over but we have been fairly productive at home.  Well we've produced lots of paper recycling.  Nick had a clear out of the filing cabinet and there was a big pile of paper for shredding.  We're still working our way through the pile but our recycling bin was full when they came to empty it yesterday.  We've also sorted out a lot of stuff that we will take to a car boot sale when spring arrives. (I'm being optimistic here - be impressed.)  There is another pile of stuff by the front door that will go to the recycling centre at our local Sainsbury's at the weekend.  And then there is a pile of books for the local Oxfam shop.

Michael's room is almost habitable again and Matthew has caught the clearing out bug and has sorted out some stuff from his room.  Now I just need to convince Rebecca to go through her things and get more organised.

Less is sometimes more!

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Personally I'm a twosie kind of girl

I'm not alone!  

There seems to be a craze at the moment for a strange kind of garment known as a "Onesie".  They come in all shapes and sizes and with various attachments so that you can make yourself into various animals etc.  One of my relatives even had a matching set for all their family members - well matching in that they all had a onesie, none of them were the same.  I've seen the photographic evidence.

Admitedly they are supposed to be cosy and comfortable - ideal for lounging about in your own home, walking out to the shops a definite no no, unless of course you're on the way to a fancy dress party via the off licence.  

I thought I was on my own in thinking they have a rather large drawback but no, there is a kindred spirit out there, a reporter for The Times newspaper.  She had a much better way with words than I have but the gist of her article in today's paper was about how impractical these garments are when you need to use the toilet!  Those of you who know me well will understand this is important for me.  The need to strip the thing off to use the loo is a definite design flaw.  (Unless of course they do come with an evacuation flap in the nether regions but I'm pretty sure they don't.)  

So I will be sticking with my PJs - my best friend bought me a lovely comfy pair for christmas so I'm all set and if I get cold I'll resort to my slanket. I might not be prepared to wear a onesie but I'm not adverse to wearing a back to front dressing gown!