Tuesday, February 28, 2006

P***** Off

As you can see I’m a little cheesed off. Three guesses as to why…

Yes that’s right, it’s our new neighbours.

I had hoped that seeing as they spent their first night in their new home, they would have finally ceased with all the banging, drilling, hammering and their obsession with power tools.

How wrong I was ! ! !

It would seem that they are now starting to replace the floor boards in the remaining two bedrooms. As one of the rooms is adjacent to my work room, the noise in here is deafening.

I’m starting to wish ‘John’s theory’ would come true. He thinks they have bought the house to modernise it then sell it for profit.

To say I hate our new neighbours is an understatement…

Marie

Monday, February 27, 2006

Moving in time

It would seem that there is moving activity next door as today the new neighbours started bringing in some furniture. You would expect this to be a quiet affair. Our new neighbours quiet – you must be joking. Every time they unloaded the car, it set off our phantom door bell.

Of course no day would be complete without a bit of banging. They had their television Arial replaced…

It look like we’ll be getting more new neighbours as Greg and Kay who live opposite have today put their house up for sale and the house at the end of our street has also just gone up for sale.

Was it something I said ! ! !

Marie

Saturday, February 25, 2006

You know when it's getting close ...

You know when it’s getting close to an HBA Spring Conference when :

Marie is looking at dress patterns.

Our dining room is full of boxes.

Viking Direct raise our credit limit.

We start thinking in terms of days to go instead of weeks to go.

Paul starts to blog about minibus hire.

Our alcohol consumption rises (the stress, the stress !!)

Large quantities of cash are stolen.

Not long now ...

John

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Marie’s Theory

Apologies for not blogging for awhile but there hasn’t really been anything exciting to report.

My ankle is still swollen and rather painful so haven’t ventured into the outside world by myself. Weather permitting I’m doing that tomorrow – wish me luck ! ! !

We went to Blackpool on Friday night for a meeting with the hotel on Saturday morning to finalise things for conference. Driving there was fine (moving the accelerator pedal was good exercise for my ankle), however walking wasn’t…

Still the pain was worth when we checked into our room. The hotel had given us a suite and to say it was huge is an understatement. We counted eight different rooms ! ! ! Shame we were only there for less than 13 hours.

Anyway about my theory. It concerns the new neighbours. Having ‘moved in’ 17 weeks ago, they’re still hammering, banging, drilling and demolishing from 8.30am – 6pm, seven days a week.

Because of the current state of the housing market, the new neighbours wanted a new modern built property but couldn’t afford one.

They bought Dennis’s house due to it being in need of a little TLC. As modern properties are open plan, bland and soulless, they decided to rip out all the glorious features of a 1910’s terrace house.

That’s the only plausible theory I can come up as Dennis’s house was a little tired but really only required cosmetic work doing to it.

Marie

Monday, February 13, 2006

Upset me at your peril

Remember my encounter on Friday with the nasty nurse in A&E. Well I made a complaint against her this morning.

I didn’t like doing it but she gave me no choice as her behaviour and attitude was not what I expected from a member of the medical profession.

The Matron in charge of A&E rang me this afternoon and was most apologetic. She has assured me that the matter will be dealt with.

My ankle has been throbbing this afternoon. I wonder if the nurse has been putting pins in a ‘Marie’ doll…

Whilst I’m on the subject of the NHS, I had to cancel my dentist appointment. I was meant to be there this afternoon but because of my ankle I couldn’t make it. The earliest rescheduled appointment they could give me is 4th May. By then it’ll be six months since my initial appointment.

I’m glad I’m not suffering from toothache ! ! !

Marie

Friday, February 10, 2006

Snap

You know I hate shopping, and in particularly grocery shopping. Well it took it’s revenge out on me last night.

As we were walking out of Morrisons I heard and felt a snap in my right ankle. To say it was painful is an understatement.

Thankfully the car was parked quite close to the entrance so I didn’t have far to hobble.

During the night my ankle decided to swell and as the pain was unbearable, I decided this morning to call NHS direct to see what I should do.

As the little man said ‘anything that snaps isn’t good’, so I was told to go to A&E as he thought I’d snapped my Achilles tendon.

John had just arrived at work only to receive a phone call asking him to take me to A&E.

Having been seen by two lovely triage nurses and waiting over two hours we finally got seen by a nurse practitioner who must have been suffering from Friday blues as she wasn’t a nice person at all.

She was extremely blunt, had no bed side manner and could have done with a couple of lessons at the local charm school. Her diagnosis – I hadn’t snapped my Achilles tendon but failed to say what the problem was and would get the physio to come in to see me. Then she left the room. No good bye, sod off, nothing…

It was the physio who told me that I had torn the ligaments in my ankle. So I’ve got to rest it for a few day, take loads of painkillers, put an ice pack on it twice a day and it should take about three weeks to heal.

All I can see is thank goodness I did it now and not a week before Blackpool conference! ! !

Marie

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

A stitch in time

It’s that time of year again were I start planning the dress I’m going to make for the HBA Spring conference.

Having looked through all the various pattern books I’ve come to the conclusion that:

A) I’m too fat
B) I’m too short
C) I’m too big busted

All the patterns I like are no good because they fall into one or more of the above.

I can do something about A but not in the timescale. There’s only seven weeks to Blackpool so not much chance of loosing that much weight.

Unless I get leg extensions there isn’t much I can do about B.

And sadly dieting does nothing to reduce my bust so my only option would be surgery. Not something I quite fancy.

So it’s back to the drawing board – now there’s an idea….

Marie

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

A to Z

Thought I’d copy Gottle so here are my A to Z’s.

[A is for age:]
37
[B is for booze of choice:]
Wine, wine and more wine and Pimms in the summer
[C is for career:]
Housewife
[D is for your dog’s name:]
Don’t have one
[E is for essential items you use everyday:]
Computer
[F is for favourite song(s) at the moment:]
‘Penny to my name’ sung by Eva Cassidy and ‘I’ll build a stairway to Paradise’ sung by Issy van Randwyck
[G is for favourite games:]
Backgammon
[H is for hometown:]
Sunderland
[I is for instruments you play:]
Piano (badly), recorder and used to play the clarinet
[J is for jam or jelly you like:]
Blackcurrant
[K is for kids:]
No way ! ! !
[L is for last kiss:]
1 minute ago
[M is for most admired trait:]
Loves animals
[N is for name of your crush:]
The football player Bryan Robson when I was at school
[O is for overnight hospital stays:]
Lots
[P is for phobias:]
Thunder and lightning, loud noises and creepy crawlies
[Q is for quotes you like:]
‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard’ President John F Kennedy
[R is for biggest regret:]
Giving up teacher training to join the civil service
[S is for sweets of your choice:]
Chocolate and fizzy cola bottles
[T is for time you wake up:]
Several times during the night
[U is for underwear:]
Non-wired bras and anything from M&S
[V is for vegetables you love:]
What’s them…
[W is for worst habit:]
Having to the loo three times before going to sleep
[X is for x-rays you’ve had:]
Loads
[Y is for yummy food you make:]
Fruit cake
[Z is for zodiac sign:]
Virgo

Marie

Monday, February 06, 2006

Friday part 1 (again)

It may not be word for word perfect but here goes…

On Friday I took my mam shopping at Sainsburys. Food shopping with my mam is always an experience but as she had a cold it was like shopping with someone on speed ! ! !

The fruit and veg section. “Do you know were er is”.
I should explain. My mam thinks that everyone is telepathic so doesn’t need to say anything else other than ‘er’.

After a process of elimination I finally guessed what she wanted only to have to repeat the process over and over again.

Still in fruit and veg. “Do you want some tomatoes”.
“Mam, I don’t like tomatoes and you know I don’t, yet you ask me this every time”. “Well I only asked in case you changed your mind”.

The uncooked meat aisle. She spends quite a while looking at the variety of sausages then says “I don’t like sausages”.

The ready made meals aisle. “What can ‘you’ have for a change”, she asks.
“Mam I don’t have RMM”.
It transpires that ‘you’ means ‘I’ (I’ll have to remember that one…). She spends ages looking at the different meals then said she doesn’t like RRM either.

The dairy aisle and she’s standing facing the yoghurts. “Can you see any er”.
“A clue would be helpful”.
“Yoghurts”.
I resist the temptation to be sarcastic so ask “what kind”.
“Sainsburys own”.
“Narrowing it down, any particular one”.
“The Winter Collection”.

After spending ages searching I couldn’t find them.
“Found them”, she says picking up Autumn Fruits…

This is the edited version. Imagine the whole thing ! ! !

Marie

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Friday part 3

For some strange reason Friday part 1 has disappeared from my blog….

I did publish it – honest ! ! ! John will be my witness as he remembers reading it.

I’ll type it up again tomorrow.

Marie

Friday part 2

While at Sainsburys on Friday I decided to hand in my prescriptions. I needed more tablets for my IBS, more cold sore cream and a sachet of penicillin for when I have my teeth scaled and polished at the dentist next Monday.

These three items cost me £19.50 ! ! ! The woman in the chemist commented that it’s expensive to be ill. Too right…

One thing drove me to drink on Friday and it wasn’t the cost of the prescriptions. It was the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I’ve mentioned before that the programme is a lot funnier when accompanied by alcohol. Don’t ask me how I would have coped watching it sober.

Boy was it awful ! ! !

Marie

PS John says I should have called my blog ‘Friday the Third, part 2’. Now I do need a drink…