Anniversary

It's Mum and Dad's anniversary today, 52 years. We did presents this morning and we'll have cake and sherry this afternoon. We'll have a nice dinner at the weekend.

Birthday

It's my birthday today. We did presents this morning and we'll have cake this afternoon. Then at the weekend we'll have a nice dinner.

Scotland

We left for our weekend at my cousin's in lovely sunny weather and for the first few hours the sun did shine. We took a trip out in the afternoon and spent some time at Floors Castle garden centre then visited Ford and had an ice cream and tea. Unfortunately the hot weather didn't last long. In the evening there was supposed to be archery at the local pub but that got cancelled. Instead my cousin, me and her friend had just as good a time playing darts very badly while my uncle watched.

Next day the weather was if anything even worse as it poured and poured all day. My cousin and his wife arrived at lunch time and in the afternoon we had a short trip out but apart from that we had a great time in the house catching up and talking and wondering in the occlasional breaks in the rain if we could get outside.

On Sunday the weather was better although there were some impressive puddles in the roads on the way home. All in all in spite of the horrible weather we had a great time.

Holiday

My weekend has started. I have a day off tomorrow as we are going up to Scotland to stay with my cousin. My uncle is going as well and on Saturday my cousin's brother and his wife are coming up too. The forecast isn't very good and there might be some rain. It would be nice if the weather was as good as it is today, it is lovely with lots of sunshine and very warm.

Shopping

I bought myself an iPad this week. It was a bit of an impulse buy but so far I am enjoying it although the keyboard is a little difficult to use. When I think back to my first computer and compare it to this it's quite amazing.

My only other spend this week was going to the hairdressers yesterday.

This weekend has been a quiet one,mainly watching the rain coming down and we have had more thunder and lightening. Summer weather can be so nice!

A little reading

Now that the tennis is over I finally got round to buying a couple of books I have had my eye on for awhile.  So this afternoon I bought Jump! by Jilly Cooper and The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld so have plenty to occupy myself with.

The Wii Fit is also back in use now.  It's amazing how it doesn't take long to get out of the way of exercise!  It is about all the exercise I am getting as it is very quiet at work now that the vacation has started.  The mornings do drag quite a bit!

Lunch

The weather was very up and down today.  Bright sunshine one minute, dark clouds and threatening rain the next.  But luckily by the time I met Mum and Dad to go down to the Quayside for lunch the sun had decided to come out and stay.  And a very nice lunch it was.  We all went for the chicken and bacon with brie salad and then Mum and I had creme brulee while Dad had Bakewell tart and ice cream.  We got some much needed exercise afterwards with a nice, long walk.  And the sun stayed out!

Sad

It's a Bank Holiday weekend this weekend and so I have taken tomorrow off tomake a nice break.  Unfortunately our plans for it have changed.  My aunt died last week and tomorrow is her funeral.

After some lovely weather earlier this month it has been awful this week.  Lots and lots of heavy wind and the rain has absolutely poured down.  I was caught in a shower this afternoon after I left work and even with an umbrella I still got quite wet. At least it has got a bit cooler at work since the temperature dropped.  That's a good thing as there is a lot to do at the minute with exams on.  The mornings go very quickly when it's this busy!

On holiday

Thanks to a combination of Bank Holidays, Easter a day off for the Royal Wedding and the May Bank Holiday I am now on holiday for the next eleven days and I have only had to use three days holiday!  I intend to do very little.  I have Easter eggs to eat, books to read and television to watch.  I will do a little baking and sleep in!

Birthday

It's Mum's birthday today.  We did presents this morning and had a lovely cake from Marks this afternoon.  We would usually have chocolate but this time we decided to go for a buttercream filling.  It was very nice.  We'll have a dinner later in the week.

Chocolate rabbits

The end of another week and I was quite glad when the time came to leave work!  It's been lovely warm weather outside but as always however hot it is outside at work it is much hotter.  And while it may be a lot quieter than it was there is still enough to do to make you feel the heat.  There is not so much shelving of books to be done now as tidying which is quite a job as we seem to have a lot of students who like making a lot of mess!
After work it was into town to do a bit of shopping.  I was looking for some new shoes but unfortunately they didn't have my size and I couldn't find the t-shirts I wanted.  One little bit of shopping was successful and tasty.  I gave in and bought myself a Lindt rabbit.  So far I have had one ear and it was very nice!

Long week

It is finally Friday.  It has been a long week and a busy one.  The living room is finally back to normal after a week of decorating.  We are very happy with the colour, a nice light green and all we have to do now is get rid of the smell of paint.  Unfortunately my sinuses have not enjoyed the paint at all!

Work has been very busy too, especially the last couple of days as term ended today.  Lots and lots of books have been coming back.  Unfortunately for some reason at the same time the temperature in the building has gone up and up.  The combination is not a great one!

So I intend to have a nice, relaxing weekend.  Lunch out tomorrow with my friend and a bit of television and a bit of reading too.

Busy

We had our lunch out yesterday and throughly enjoyed it.  Unfortunately we didn't get our walk afterwards as the weather turned out to be not so great.  This afternoon was another late home as I had an appointment at the hairdressers.  It was about time as my hair was definitely starting to get to be a bit of a haystack.  Tomorrow will be busy too as we are finally making a start on the decorating we have been talking about for quite some time.  So the walls get stripped tomorrow although I do get a break when I go out for lunch with my friend.

Budget

It was Budget Day here today. No real surprises, unpleasant or pleasant which I suppose is a relatively good thing. At least the sun has been shining which always makes things seem much nicer. In fact we have actually had some bees flying around the garden. Nice to see some signs that Winter is finally on its way out! Hopefully the good weather will continue tomorrow as we are off to have lunch at one of our favourite pubs down by the Quayside.  Who knows, if the sun keeps shining there might even be a walk in prospect after we've eaten!

Damp weather

Today is the first day for awhile that it's been possible to see further than the end of the street. Lots of fog has finally given way to sunshine. But my sinuses have taken offence at all the damp and I have had a headache for a couple of days now. A few days sunshine would be nice in more than one way!

I have a terrible craving for chocolate at the minute, even more than the usual. It wasn't helped today by what seemed to be just about everyone around me buying bars. Instead of giving in I'll do my exercises and hold out a little longer!

More books

As the old saying goes for March, "In like a lion out like a lamb". Hopefully it will prove right as it has been very, very windy today. My hair looked like a haystack by the time I got to work. But it didn't stop me from going into town after work and heading for Waterstones as I had finally decided what books to buy. I made use of their 3 for 2 offer and came home with Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson who is a recent discovery but a favourite and The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson , I've already read the first of the trilogy and there was another special offer I couldn't resist so I also got Solar by Ian McEwan whose books I enjoy. So I have plenty of reading to keep me occupied for the time being.

Pancakes

Pancake Day today. Our first attempt at making pancakes this afternoon came to nothing as the non-stick pan suddenly stopped being non-stick. But I made a quick shopping trip for a new one and after that everything went well. And the pancakes, with a sprinkle of sugar and a squeeze of lemon, were lovely.

Catch up

The BBC iplayer is a great invention which I have made full use of this week, catching up on an excellent series on BBC2 that I couldn't watch live or record due to recording clashes, Sebastian Faulks, Faulks on Fiction. A good sign was that it made me want to read or re-read most of the books discussed. The only slight hiccup was on one occasion when in the middle of watching an episode my computer possibly taking umbrage at the clip being shown just went blank and froze solid for a very long ten minutes. Not being great with things like that all I could do was press buttons and keys and hope for the best.

If the computer had gone for good I'm not sure I would have paid out for the new ipad being released especially as it seems another new version is on its way in a few months. How do people possibly keep up with it all!

Signs of Spring

The weather here has been pretty awful this week, frosty, grey and misty. But today finally some signs of Spring, lots of daffodils ready to show themselves. It's about time! I'm getting very tired of wearing my wellies.

At least it is finally Friday. The last couple of weeks have been quite slow for some reason. It could be because it has been rather quiet at work. In any case I have a nice lazy weekend planned, lunch out with my friend as usual tomorrow. Some television, some reading and some exercising with the Wii Fit which has to be the first time I haven't found exercise tedious!

Cooking

I got round to some book buying today although so far I only managed to get one of the many I was looking at. Bought the latest Nigella Lawson cookbook, Kitchen, this afternoon. We had watched the series on the BBC last year and thought some of the recipes were lovely. Well, there are even more in the book. We will have to keep on with the daily exercises while we are trying them out!

Books and more books

It was pay day today so after work I went into town to sort out my money then I decided to go and have a wander round Waterstones as there are one or two books I've been thinking about getting. While I was there I kept coming across books that made me think Oh yes, that would be nice and so would that one and that one... so in the end I decided I had better leave!

Of course before I buy any new books what we really need is a new bookcase as we are rapidly running out of shelf space. But I would never let that stop me from buying!

Sunshine

There was a definite feeling of Spring in the air today. It definitely lightens the mood. I'm looking forward to not having to go out in coat and scarf even if it doesn't last which it often doesn't. Even just a taste of Spring is still welcome!

Chocolate

I headed into town after work to do a couple of quick errands. On the way to the Metro I couldn't resist dropping into the Hotel Chocolat shop. I was very tempted but didn't succumb. Now of course I am sitting here really, really wishing that I had! All chocolate is good but Hotel Chocolat chocolate is wonderful!

New blog

I'm new to Blogger but not to blogging. Unfortunately my old site is closing down and the decision was to keep on blogging or not. I haven't really used my old site for awhile but having had it for nearly eight years it seemed a shame not to at least keep the option open so decision made, here I am!