Thursday, February 28, 2008

Couldn’t wait

This morning I went to the dentist. Last night the toothache was really bad. Even medicinal didn’t help ! ! !

It turns out that I have an abscess on my tooth. Unlike John’s last year (same tooth as it happens…) Kim, my dentist, didn’t want to remove it so she opened it up and cleaned out the infection.

I’m on antibiotics for seven days. Thankfully not the kind where you can’t have alcohol. It’s bad enough being in pain without having prohibition enforced…

My tooth and the surrounding area are still pretty painful and I’m told will be for a couple of days so I’m on a soft food diet.

Looks like it’ll be yogurt for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Still it’ll do wonders for my diet. Only one more pound till my first treat.

Marie

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Throbbing

That’s what my mouth is doing at the moment.

I suspect the cause is a mouth ulcer rather than actual toothache. However the symptoms are much the same so if it’s still hurting on Monday I’ll have to go to the dentist.

I was awake this morning, thanks to the throbbing, around the time of the earthquake but didn’t notice or hear anything. Hopefully tonight’s doze of medicinal will help me sleep a bit better.

Busy making my dress for Leeds. Gertie is currently modeling it at the moment and say the pins don’t hurt a bit…

Marie

Sunday, February 24, 2008

To Leeds and back

Yesterday we had to get up early. 5.46 to be exact. It was meant to be 5.45 but I went past it while I was setting the alarm… I only recognise one 5.46 and that’s not it ! ! !

We had to be in Leeds for an early morning meeting with the Queens hotel to go through the final bits and pieces for conference. Normally we would have taken the car and had the pleasure of an extra hour in bed. However Trainline were doing really good deals to Leeds so we just had to take them up on their offer.

We had half an hour before our meeting so decided to see how far it was to the Met hotel. We’re having to use it as overspill for our delegates as the Queens can’t give us any more rooms. It took us less than four minutes to walk there and given that it was my slow walk, I think we can call that pretty close to the Queens.

The meeting with the hotel went well. It was really making sure we’re all ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’, sorting out menus, timings etc. Seems like nothing but it still took over an hour and a half.

There was just time for John to take a couple of photographs of the front of the Queens hotel for the conference brochure, then it was off to have an early lunch before we caught our train home. It was after all a long time since we had breakfast…

It was a toss up between a sandwich at Subway’s or a Big Mac and fries from McDonalds. The burger won.

Just checked the calendar and it’s four weeks this Friday – scary ! ! !

Marie

Thursday, February 21, 2008

North East divide

We got a letter from the council to say that they were changing the day when our bins would be emptied, from a Thursday to a Friday. They were also changing the day and week when our recycling box would be emptied also.

On the Wednesday night we noticed that some people had put out their bins in the back lane and just thought that they had forgotten about the change of day as it often happens. There are some who put their bins out on Christmas eve expecting them to be emptied on Christmas day when it happens to fall on a Thursday…

The next day I happened to be in the main bedroom and saw that the bin men had in fact been. I rang the council to see if there had been a mistake and our bins should have been out that day but no, we were now a Friday collection. Sure enough the next day our bin was emptied.

We’re not sure why the council has decided to use our back lane as the new dividing line. Maybe they thought it was more economical to empty the houses facing north and South on a Thursday and East and West a Friday.

Marie

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Getting to know your friends

Gottle emailed me the 2008 edition of Getting To Know Your Friends and instead of emailing it to friends, I thought I’d put it into a blog. Well, the friends I’d be emailing it to will be reading the blog so I’m killing two birds with one stone…

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8.14am

2. Diamonds or pearls? If someone is buying then I’ll have either

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Chicken Run and before that Jurassic Park – can’t you tell I don’t go to the cinema that often…

4. What is your favourite TV show? M*A*S*H

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Frosties, muesli or toast if I’m suffering from a hangover

6. What is your middle name? Don’t have one

7. What food do you dislike? Trifle

8. What is your favourite CD at the moment? I don’t really have a favourite. The one I’m playing whilst cooking is ‘Chess’

9. What kind of car do you drive? A Nissan Note

10. Favourite sandwich? A tuna stottie from the local Deli

11. What characteristic do you despise? Anyone who is arrogant

12. Favourite item of clothing? T-shirts

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on holiday, where would you go? The Mediterranean on board a Silversea cruise ship

14. What colour is your bathroom? Rice pudding and platinum - in English that’s cream and pale blue.

15. Favourite brand of clothing? Marks and Spencer’s

16. Where would you retire to? North Yorkshire

17. What was your most memorable birthday? My 21st as I celebrated it in four different countries

18. Favourite sport to watch? Tennis

19. Favourite saying? I don’t have one but I’m saying ‘no bother’ quite a bit at the moment

20. When is your birthday? September 9th

21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning unless I’ve had alcohol the night before…

22. What is your shoe size? 3

23. Pets? None – I’m not allowed

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? I’m pregnant – only joking ! ! ! !

25. What did you want to be when you were little? Don’t think I had anything in mind

26. What are you now? A retired civil servant

27. What is your favourite candy? Chocolate and lots of it

28. What is your favourite flower? Poppy

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? 28th May

30. What church do you attend? I’m afraid I don’t go to church

31 . What is your full name? Marie Harper

32. What are you listening to right now? ‘007 Audio for the 80’s’ on my internet radio

33. What was the last thing you ate? Bendick’s honeycomb mint

34. Do you wish on stars? No

35. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be? Blue

36. How is the weather right now? I don’t know because it’s dark….

37. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mam

38. Favourite soft drink? Ribena

39. Favourite restaurant? The Paradise Garden

40. Hair colour? Dark brown with grey bits

41. Favourite day of the year? Christmas day

42. What was your favourite toy as a child? Sindy doll

43. Summer or winter? Summer

44. Hugs or Kisses? Why choose when you can have both...

45. Chocolate or Vanilla? If it’s ice cream then either. However if the chocolate ice cream contains mint then that wins hands downs

46. When was the last time you cried? When the Alien died in last weeks episode of Torchwood – yes I know I’m sad ! ! !

47. What is under your bed? Dust and my dressmaking board

48. What did you do last night? Had a bath

49. Favourite smell? A fruit cake baking in the oven

50. What are you afraid of? Thunder and lightning and loud noises

51. Plain, buttered, or salted Popcorn? Plain or salted. However my favourite is caramel coated popcorn – yum, yum

52. How many keys on your key ring? Six. One of which I have no idea what it’s for

53. How many years at your current job? Been a retired civil servant since July 2002

54. Favourite day of the week? Friday

55. How many towns have you lived in? None. Houghton-le-Spring is a village and Sunderland is a city – sorry for being pedantic…

56. Do you make friends easily? Sometimes. I’m more at ease with my close friends as I’m quite shy – yes I know it’s hard to believe ! ! !

Marie

Thursday, February 07, 2008

I’ve just checked…

…when we last blogged and I can’t believe it was over a week ago ! !

So what’s to report. We finished decorating the bathroom and have worked out a date when we’re going to give it a major revamp – Easter next year.

Been busy sewing for the past few days. I ordered some sewing patterns from America (they’re much cheaper than in the UK) so have been making toiles (test garments) of them. Gertie has been looking very fetching modeling the toiles made out of old bits of fabric.

I’m hoping to have made six tops and four dresses before we go on our cruise in May. One of the dresses is needed for Leeds conference so I’ll be starting that one soon.

The diet seems to be going fine. We got on the scales on Saturday and have both lost another couple of pounds. Only four more pounds to go before I’ve earned my first treat.

Sadly the treat can’t be anything food or alcohol related so I think I’ll settle for a DVD. However I can’t decide which one – the complete collection of Mary, Mungo and Midge, Trumpton, Chigley or Camberwick Green…

Marie