September 10, 2006

Singalong now...

Sunday Sunday, so bad for me,
Sunday Sunday, it wasn't all I hoped it would be
Oh Sunday morning, Sunday morning could guarantee
That Sunday evening I'd be bored with the TV.

Sunday Sunday, can't trust that day,
Sunday Sunday, sometimes it just turns out that way
Oh Sunday Sunday, you gave me no warning of what was to be
Oh Sunday Sunday, how could you be such a torturous entity.

Every other day, every other day,
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But whenever Sunday comes, but whenever Sunday comes
You can find me cryin' all of the time

Sunday Sunday, so bad for me,
Sunday Sunday, it wasn't all I hoped it would be
Oh Sunday morning, Sunday morning could guarantee
That Sunday evening I'd be bored with the TV.

Every other day, every other day,
Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But whenever Sunday comes, but whenever Sunday comes
You can find me cryin' all of the time

Sunday Sunday, ...

Posted by Abi at 9:50 PM

September 9, 2006

Fancy A Bit Of French?

I've been a busy old bee today with lots of things to do and keep me busy.

First off Phil and I have to go into town for his follow up appointment with the optician to see how his first night of contact lens wear went. We have to get into town for 9 am, only to be kept waiting for 20 minutes for the fat walla pseudo russian airport man to get his act together and to see phil. I'm quite angry when he waltzes over his voluptuous manner and so promptly leave to go do some shopping.

It appears that there is a french market in town today, so I have a gander around that to see what's what and thank the lord I've got no money in my purse since the mobile boulangerie was soarly tempting. Instead of the bread though I make do with a brownie baking tin and a jiffy bag and trudge back to the opticians to pick up Phil and we wind our way home via the super market to pick up a few more bits and pieces. It seems Phil's eyes have coped well with having plastic wodged in them overnight, so he's got the go ahead to wear them constantly for the next week until we have to go back to the optician to wait pointlessly for another 30 minutes or so for another check up. So that's good news, we've just got to keep a close eye out for any problems that may crop up.

This afternoon I decide to make some french fancies - cakes in other words. This time though they are made with a very light sponge and filled with french butter cream - sounds good eh? Only problem is they are an all day affair to make. Not only do you have to make custard from scratch (yes, I just about managed it without it turning to wall paper paste) but there is an extraordinary amount of chilling time involved too. Nonetheless, they taste divine, I just don't know when I'll have the energy or endless cavern on time to make them again heheh :) The only slight problem was when it came to the icing you're suppose to put on the top of them - the book said "split the icing into two bowls. Add a tiny drop of blue food colouring to create a pastel blue in one half and then add a tiny drop of yellow food colouring to create a pale yellow in the other half". Hmph, my hand slipped so the cakes actually ended up looking like a 3 year old had gotten loose with a crayola.

Sweet diddly going on this evening, with just the usual entertainment of x-factor to keep us occupied. Oh well, long gone are the days where we didn't have time to think on the weekends.

Posted by Abi at 9:58 PM

September 8, 2006

Early

More baking for me today this morning, as well as popping out into town and picking up a few essentials, such as more doggy treats for ratbag and more human treats for the other pack members.

By the time I've rushed around town and the supermarket I've not got long before I get back home and unpack, have some lunch and then bake Phil some cakes since I'd promised him a batch. I have even less time after doing all that before Phil gets home early since we've got yet another opticians appointment today so they can do a pre-overnight check on his eyes before he attempts to sleep in his contacts for the first time.

We arrive at the opticians in plenty of time, however the same can not be said for the man we are suppose to be seeing since as we are walking down the opticians we see him walking in the opposite direction. We then spend the best part of 15 minutes waiting for him to arrive (that includes a phone call made by one of his collegues to see WTF he is). Shocking service really I'm half minded to write to boots and put a complaint in. Everytime we go in there we either have to wait for 15 - 30 minutes for our appointment to start or we get back chatted by the bloke who obviously took his customer service skills course at a BT call center.

When we finally get home Phil ponders about what he's going to do for the rest of the evening since he's home a good couple of hours earlier than normal and I finish icing the cakes I'd made earlier. We then have a debate on "icing: the correct ingredients for perfect fairy cakes" and I resolve that I'll make some different ones tomorrow to see if they are more to the liking of Phils more traditional icing tastes.

Posted by Abi at 9:14 PM

September 7, 2006

Beadilicious

Not up to much today really, so to subdue the boredom I decide to make some jewelry with the large array of beads I've been gathering for some time.

Whilst I was in America I picked up some lovely blue tigers eye beads along with some rather unusual ones which whilst predominantly brown in colour when you turn them in the light have patches of metallic blue in them, and alas they've been sitting on the side for several months now, so I string up 5 bracelets with the beads, all with various combinations of blue to brown beads which I'm really happy with. I also make up another bracelet but this one is a combination of tiny haematite beads with some swarovski fire opal crystals (they are almost burnt orange with fading to an orangy yellow). The black and orange look really good together and I'm very pleased with it - I think it will become one of my favourites without a doubt :)

This evening is a bit of a no brainer, Phil is home late tonight after fixing someone elses feck up and so by the time we've eaten (and I've recooked the chicken since it wasn't quite done) and watched Dragon's Den (twice since Phil had a phone call half way through) there ain't much else to do before it's time to go to bed.

Posted by Abi at 9:20 PM

September 6, 2006

More doggy practice

I've had a very quite day today, so much so it's quite difficult to write any kind of entry, but I did do a few things to keep me occupied.

The first thing I did today was to do a bit of research on this whole pub idea I've got. I spend a lot of time evaluation what the sort of prices I'd be looking at to get myself into my own pub which varies depending on if you want to lease somewhere or buy somewhere freehold. Ideally I'd like a free hold pub but without the backing of about £500,000.00 I'd be lucky to get anything with 4 walls and a cellar. The reason I like freehold is because you have no obligation to any brewery and you can get your supplies from anywhere you want. You also own the property outright (except of course from any lender) so you're pretty much left to your own devices.

But as you can see, freehold is a pretty big financial commitment so I've also looked at other options. If I was lucky there is an option occasionally to get a "free of tie" lease, which is cheaper than freehold but also gives you the freedom that I mentioned before. Only problem with "free of tie" is that they are relatively hard to come by, and are also expensive by comparison to an ordinary tie in lease, which are more common and less expensive.

So ultimately then I'm left with the choices of a tie in lease or the rare chance of picking up a free of tie lease. Ideally, the latter would suit, but I think I may well be lumped with a tie in if I do decide to go further ahead with my plans. I suppose the upside of a tie in is that for a newcomer like myself it is easier in terms of getting supplies (you'd be required to get them from one place stipulated in the contract) and also a lot of the tie in leases are offered by companies who provide training for first time landlords and the like.

Anyway, I've sent off for some information from one particular company that looks promising, and bookmarked several websites specialising in the sale of licensed premises so I can keep a regular eye out for anything that might come up.

Doing all of the above pretty much took up most of my day, but by 6.30 we're off to doggy training again. For some reason Rupert is a bit ditzy tonight confusing his sits with his downs so I've got to do more work on that to help him reclarify what he's suppose to be doing. He did do pretty well on his puppy recall though and was once again the star of the show when we had to practice grooming (getting the dogs to lay on their backs etc) which he found very easy since he spends 90% of his day on his back asleep!

Posted by Abi at 9:19 PM

September 5, 2006

Tending bar

So I've got my tester day at the local pub today, but before that I have to go to the opticians to get my eyes tested. I don't think there is anything wrong with them, but since they were offering free eye tests in boots I thought I'd sign up and just get them checked out. Better to be safe than sorry.

After air being puffed into my eyes, bright lights shone into them and general retinal burn and poking and prodding the upshot of it all is that my eyesight is fine - I'm slightly long sighted in my right eye but no where near enough to warrant a prescription.

By 11 I'm at the pub and being shown the ropes, but truthfully nothing much happens till around lunch time when every mother and their uncle turns up for food. So with a mad rush at the bar and me not being overly familiar with their fancy tills I don't know if I helped much or just got in the way, but I tried my best and only really fucked up when I corked a bottle of wine. Oops. By 2 I get to take my break and go and let Rupert out for a pee, he seems to have coped pretty well whilst I've been out and after a quick lunch and a bit of play time in the garden with pupster I'm heading back to the pub to do my afternoon shift. It went a bit smoother than the earlier one and by the end of it I was much better at getting the hang of the till and also remembering where everything was and I actually enjoyed myself - I'd forgotten how much fun it was to work behind a bar, and after spending so much time at home lately it was nice to go out and do some sort of socialising.

By the end of my shift though when the landlord said "see you thursday then" I was a bit taken aback since I was under the impression that it really was a trial day and we'd have a chance to take about things at the end of it, rather than assuming I'd be up for it straight away. Like I said yesterday, I had a number of concerns, primarily with working every weekend without the opportunity of having any off at all (they don't run a fair rota system) and so when I mention this to him he kinda goes off on one, and even though I try to explain to him the difficulty what with Phil being a weekday worker and us only getting the opportunity to see each other in the evenings and at the weekends, we'd never see each other. It wasn't as if I was asking to never work weekends, just to have one off every month, but he couldn't offer that sort of guarantee. He also then went into a big spcheel about the trade doesn't work 9-5 Monday to Friday which I managed to stop him preaching about when I said to him that whilst I fully understood that he had to understand my point of view, after all he and his wife worked and lived in the pub so there wasn't really an issue with their relationship suffering due to lack of attendance by one party.

Urghh by the end of it I was glad I told him I wouldn't be back, but thanks for the day. Seriously the man was a right proper grouch and I don't know if I could have worked with him in the long term. It's also made me realise that these big pub chains might not provide the sort of experience I want - everything is so regimented (like having to serve coke out of branded coco cola glasses) it doesnt really offer any opportunity to reach out and do something different. You're just following a set of rules and sticking to them with out any imagination or spark, everything comes from head office and you'd better like it because if you don't follow them the likely hood is you get fined or something ridiculous like that.

I'm thinking that perhaps I'm going about this all the wrong way - maybe I need to be brave enough to just jump from the frying pan into the fire and see if I can do it on my own (with Phils help of course!) without the trauma of being subjected to pub chain bureaucracy. Something to think about tonight I guess :)

Posted by Abi at 9:18 PM

September 4, 2006

Impromptu Interview

I make a rather off the cuff phone call today to one of our local pubs (a hungry horse chain run by greene king) after looking at their website and noticing that they do training to see if they have any jobs available. As it happens they do and so they've asked me to go for an interview today at 3 pm. Not a problem really so I just spend most of the morning relaxing in front of the Tv, doing a bit of squatting up on the pub and not a lot else.

The interview went well and they've asked me to go in for a training day tomorrow to see if I like it or not and then to discuss the position further there after, the only problem is I need a pair of black trousers and a black top to wear, which currently I have none in my wardrobe since I've thrown most things of that description out as it was too big.

So after the interview I nip back home, get changed and then head back into town to get the required clothing for tomorrow and luckily I hit the jackpot in dorothy perkins and pick up everything I need within 20 minutes flat and 5 minutes before they close. I was going to do all of this in the morning but quickly remembered that I'd booked an eye test in the morning and so probably wouldn't want to run the risk of finding suitable clothes, having an eye test and getting to the pub on time because knowing my luck it would end in disaster.

This evening is a bit weird, but I think I know the reason for that. Having explained the possible hours of the pub job (3 - 11pm 3 days a week, and 12 - 9pm at weekends) to Phil I think he's concerned we might not ever see each other and he's right, and thinking about it it does seem a bit unreasonable they they would expect someone to work every weekend without some sort of rota in place to ensure weekends are spread out amongst employees to make it fair. It's something I'll have to mention tomorrow I guess, of course this would be academic if phil and I both ran/lived in a pub rather than me working for someone else. It's another consideration I need to think about I guess.

Posted by Abi at 9:17 PM

September 3, 2006

New Bin

And this is how exciting today has been, the only thing we did today was go to homebase to get a new kitchen bin since this morning I managed to break our old one by snapping off the little peg thing which the lid clasps onto in order for it to open and close nicely.

Anyway, we manage to get a new one, with 10 litres more capacity so that's helpful. We also nip to the supermarket to get a few bits and pieces for lunch and dinner and for Phil's lunches next week, but apart from that, really, not much else to say.

Posted by Abi at 11:16 AM

September 2, 2006

Shake it baby!

Quite a busy old day considering it's the weekend today, and first things first this morning we're off into town to the opticians to get some help / advice about Phils contacts. He's being having a lot of trouble with his one eye that has an astigmatism in it, to the point where he can't actually use a PC because his focus is so crap so we want to go see if they can up the prescription to help out (I mean after all, he's suppose to be wearing them 24/7 and he can't do that if he can't see!)

After a bit of a wait we are finally seen by the bloke who sorted phil out with the contacts in the first place. To give you an idea if you've ever watched the series "airport" here in the UK there is this fella called Jeremy who works for some Russian air line. Well the eye bloke is the spitting image of him, and as if that wasn't bad enough he also appear to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning because he was far from courteous and quite rude in fact - like excuse us for interrupting you because you fucked up in the first place arse wipe! Urghh, I hate people like that, so stuck up their own arse they think they are better than the customer, when in fact its the customer that's keeping them in business. Nevermind, eventually he gives Phil a new prescription and we leave before I punch the dudes lights out.

We don't go home for long because we are going into oxford this afternoon so that Phil can get his his hair cut, and whilst he's doing that I have a poke around the shops and pick up a few things. First off is some new games for the PSP, I get a number of tetris like games but restrain myself when I see frogger on the shelf, I wish I hadn't really because I love that game and have fond memories of it from childhood. If it's there next time I go into town I'll buy it I guess!

I also go to the toy shop and pick up some hair pin turns and extra side swipes for the scalectrix since Phil has been after them for a while now, and by the time I've done all my shopping it's not long before I have to go pick up Phil from the hairdressers. On the way back to the car Phil gets a MaccyD's and I indulge yet again in crap food by stuffing a hot apple pie down my gullet. Secretly I'll admit it was quite nice, but I know I shouldn't have eaten it!

Taking of eating badly, I've really gone off the rails these past weeks what with being ill and the like. I mean I've stuffed my face beyond belief and really have gone back to my old habits, but I want to nip it in the bud for next week and get back to dropping the pounds (including the 3 I've managed to put on in the last week). Monday is d day, so out with the old and in with the new once again.

I should perhaps mention here whilst on the topic of food a new place that has opened in oxford called Shake Away, which is basically a funky place to get fabulous milkshakes pretty much of any description you can imagine with top quality ingredients. Phil had an "aero" one and it was very nice indeed - icecream blended up with 2 aero bars and quite a generous portion too. It's a little pricey, but I'd put it in the genre of expensive rare treat but worth it - a bit like ben's cookies. I hope they do well, it's a unique service for oxford and I think the novelty factor will pay dividends quite nicely.

Posted by Abi at 11:15 AM

September 1, 2006

Sorry, but...

Sorry for the lack of posts around here lately but a) I've not been up to much and b) I'm still trying to get shot of this cold. Consequences? I couldn't be bothered to post because I didn't want to bore everyone to death. I mean I could have recited some poetry or something but what would the point in that be? :)

Posted by Abi at 9:13 PM

August 28, 2006

Bank Holiday

Considering it's a bank holiday today it doesn't imply that I have the luxury of a sleep in this morning since my sister and her boyfriend are rattling around fairly early getting their stuff ready to head off back home.

After I've cooked them some breakfast and filled them up with tea and coffee they leave at about 10.30 and get home around 4 I guess after a few stops here and there for groceries and the like.

Whilst they were travelling home Phil and I do very little indeed. We watch a few films - Scary Movie 4 (crap) and Basic Instinct 2 (looked ok but I was too busy playing Lemmings on our new PSP to pay it much attention). Phil also has much better luck with his contacts today getting them into his eye much quicker than he'd hoped. I think with no time limit on him and no stress he relaxed more making it easier to pop the blighters in. He had to wear them for 4 hours today but I think we've decided that until he's happy getting them in and out quickly we won't push it any further than the 4 hours since I think if he tried to put them in in the morning it would be too much pressure to perform before he goes to work. So, the plan is keep practicing putting them in and out and once he's got that down to a fine art then increase the amount of time they are in his eyes until he gets up to the 18 hours or so he needs to reach before he can try his first night of sleeping in them.

I also spend a lot of time today keeping an eye on Rupert. He's not up to his usual perky standards this morning and I think it might be something to do with the coffee he scarffed down last night - but by the time this evening rolls around he's much livelier and happier however and so I feel less inclined to worry about him. Luckily I managed to keep myself entertained whilst on puppy watch by making lots of use of our PSP and the lemmings game we got with it - highly addictive stuff dontcha know!

Posted by Abi at 9:36 PM

August 27, 2006

Sunday Shopping

After a fairly late night by my standards last night, I'm still up early this morning sorting Rupert out and preparing breakfast for everyone - a good old full english, something which I haven't had for a hell of a long time, and it was lovely!

Once we've all eaten it's not long before we are going out of the door and heading into Oxford to do some shopping. My sister has never been to Oxford before and her boyfriend used to live in the area about 15 years ago, so it will be nice for them to have a look around. Our first stop is a big electrical store as we want to have a look at the TV's where Phil and I eye up a 60" plasma but decide on the slightly smaller compulsive purchase of a PSP instead since they had a fairly good deal on them with a discounted price along with a good selection of games which came at a reduced price also.

We then head into the centre of town and have a poke around the shops, and after splitting from the boys my sister and I hit the clothes shops to see if we can find her some new trousers and jeans. Like me she has also lost a lot of weight recently and her clothes are also hanging off her arse so she needs some new ones and after we've tried on practically every pair in several shops we find some that she's happy with. We also pick up some bath supplies from Lush since bath season is almost upon us and Beth and Ian head into the mobile phone shop to upgrade their phones to some fancy motorola ones. Phil also gets some more bits for the scalectrix and by the time we've also raided the chocolate shop and stocked up on the cornish pasties for lunch it's time to head home.

Back at the house and Phil sets up the race track for everyone to have a go around on and then tries to put his contacts in. It doesn't go very well and I think part of that is because he was rushing to get them in as we were going out for a meal, so after trying for 30 minutes to get them in I convince Phil to leave it for today and to try again tomorrow since it was obviously frustrating him and getting him right royally pissed off. He takes my advice and we go out to eat and have a very nice indian meal and then come back home for coffee and dessert and Rupert also decides to get in on the action by drinking Ian's coffee which he'd left on the floor. Oh dear, I dare say that won't do him any good.

Posted by Abi at 9:45 PM

August 26, 2006

Rushing Around

You have to wonder if having guests is really worth the hassle sometimes! heheh, seriously though I've got loads to do this morning before my sister turns up with her boyfriend to spend the bank holiday with us.

I'm first out the door this morning and off to the supermarket to pick up all the requisite bits needed to feed 4 people over the weekend and when I get home I pack it all away which leaves me with about 30 seconds before Phil and I both have to head out of the house since Phil has got his eye appointment at 12 to check his prescription and see if his eyes are suitable for contact lenses as he rather fancies getting some of these ones that you can wear for 30 days / nights without having to take them out.

We get into town with just a few minutes to spare and whilst he is getting his eyes prodded and poked I do some shopping. I pick up a few things, namely a new coat for autumn and also another pillow for the guest bedroom as it appears we've only got 3 and 4 would be much handier for a double bed. I also get a few new cooking utensils as well as a bigger cooling rack for cakes and the like.

By the time I've done all that I head back to the opticians where Phil is having a lesson on how to get contacts in and out of his eyes which IMHO looks really tricky and difficult but eventually he gets them in and we go back home where I get on with cooking some chocolate fairy cakes and preparing dinner for tonight as well as squeezing in a shower so I look at least half respectful when my sister arrives.

Our visitors are on the door step by 4 pm and we then spend the rest of the evening chatting and eating and generally catching up - it's been a long time since I've actually seen any of my family rather than just chatting on the phone.

A lovely evening then, and now I'm popped and my cold or cough doesn't seem to be getting any better.

Posted by Abi at 10:58 PM

August 25, 2006

Sprucing Up

By comparison, I feel a bit better today and its a good job really because I need to clean the house before our visitors arrive. The bad news is that my cold has migrated from my head and now landed itself nicely on my chest giving me a rather nasty bark combined with lots of ickky phlegm and the like.

I've not got much time to complain though because I do need to start with the cleaning from the top to the bottom, including sorting out the guest bedroom which always takes longer when you have to make up the bed and the like.

Whilst I'm cleaning I'm also trying to catch up on the laundry as well as keeping an eye on Rupert who today, bless him, has been rather neglected since I'm busy with other stuff. He's been everso good though just sleeping in the lounge and not creating too much of a fuss. He didn't even have any accidents either which is good news.

By the time Phil walks through the door at just gone 6 I've not long been sat down after finishing off the cleaning and I'm knackered. Cleaning is hard work at the best of times let alone when you're coughing, sneezing and snuffling your way around the house.

Anyway I'm off to bed because all I want to do now is collapse.

Posted by Abi at 9:09 PM

August 23, 2006

Down

Urghh! I hate being ill! My gym routine has gone down hill, my eating is up the swanny and I feel like cack! It sucks and I don't like it!

Sigh.... I don't suppose there is much I can do about it though is there, just got to wait for my immune system to kick in and sort me out, but I'd just like to reiterate the fact that I hate being ill.

The only other thing I've done today other than feeling sorry for myself is go to dog training with Rupert. Today we practiced "sitting" and learnt the basics of getting a dog to lay down. I think Rupert has got the hang of it already which is good but I need to practice even more with him. We also practiced puppy recall where the trainer holds the dog about 50 paces away and the owner has to call the dog back to them. Rupert did really well, but bless him, it took him much longer to run to me because of his short little legs where the other dogs managed it in seconds. Still, the trainer was well impressed with his progress and he was the star of the show again, even when the trainer tried to trick him with a few curve balls here and there he still did as he was told and behaved himself. He's also getting much more confident and he's not so worried about walking around in front of other dogs and is definitely happier around other people. So lots of progress being made on that front.

Posted by Abi at 9:18 PM

August 22, 2006

Illness

It appears the itchy throat I had yesterday has decided to morph itself into a full blown head cold today and I feel like crap.

I've got aching everything, I'm hot then cold, bunged up with snot and my throat still hurts and looks ikky. I feel like all of my energy has been drained out of me and as a consequence of which I don't feel like budging off the sofa at all - so I don't for the best part of the morning and Rupert and I spend plenty of time sleeping on the couch minding our own business.

By the afternoon I still feel horrible but boredom and daytime TV is getting the better of me so I decide to go into town and get a few things - I've rather gotten into this baking malarkey and as much as I love my old hand blender it was dirt cheap when I got it and a consequence of which is that it's been gradually falling apart since I first used it - I've only got 1 beater for it now after the other one died miserably by falling apart some time ago and I swear the motor smells like it's about to burst into flames everytime I switch it on. So I pick up a brand new dualit soft touch one, which whilst quite expensive I still get 8 quid off it through luck and the sheer incompetence of the sales man who couldn't quite grasp the stock software - his loss my gain! :)

I then go to the supermarket to get a few things for the cakes I want to bake this afternoon and head on home. Today I make some retro fairy cakes (vanilla sponge with blue icing and dolly mixtures on top) and also some more pear bran muffins for my breakfast. The more indulgent of the 2 are for Phil since I think its nice for him to have a treat in his lunch box for work every day and despite that I enjoy making them too (I will admit here to licking the bowl and the beaters after making the cake mix!). I have to say the new hand blender worked a treat too, much more powerful than the old one and it has this handy retractable power cable which means the cord doesn't get all over the place when you're using it machine itself (I'm a messy cook and so usually I end up with food mixture all over the electrics!)

The cooking pretty much poops me out so I then just chill on the sofa again until Phil comes home. I still feel awful and so don't feel like doing more cooking and we settle on just popping a frozen pizza in the oven for tea, and now I'm about to run myself a scolding hot bath to see if I can get my body temperature up to anything above sub zero.

I hate having a cold, I hope I get over it soon because it's limiting my ability to go to the gym (can't breathe, feel like crap etc) and I've got my sister visiting at the weekend and I don't want to be a misery guts for when they come over.

Posted by Abi at 9:47 PM

August 21, 2006

Marathon Interview

I've got another interview today so I spend the best part of the morning brushing up on stuff and then stressing terribly over it to the point where I was going to make up an excuse and blow them off because I just didn't want to go. I think the main reason for it is because despite them thinking I'm qualified enough for the job I'm not so sure that I am - they require someone that has worked within a well defined project methodology and to be honest everywhere I've worked has been so fast paced there has been little time for such luxuries.

I summon up enough guts to go in the end but the interview lasted for 3 hours! That's a long time to be grilled by anyone, especially when you're trying to sound as if you know what your doing and impress people without coming across as big headed or impolite. They asked me so many questions I can't recall any of them now, and ended the torture by giving me a technical test which involved me coding up a pseudo website, which would have been fine except they made me do it in Microsoft word and on top of that I couldn't view the page in a browser window because apparently as a guest logged into the system I didn't have the right privileges! Handy eh!

I've not really got any inkling as to how the whole debacle went so we will just have to see - from what the lady was saying it will be a while before I hear anything back so I'll just forget about it for the time being until I get some feedback.

I don't get home till 6.30 or thereabouts and after my day I don't feel like cooking so we have a treat and get fish and chips for dinner, which whilst very nice was a huge portion of which I probably only managed to make a dent in about 1/6th of it. And on top of all that I've got a nasty feeling I'm coming down with something as my throat is itchy and sore, so much so I've had to resort in scoffing anaesthetic pastels to try and ease the pain.

Posted by Abi at 9:03 PM

August 20, 2006

Bug Zapper

I actually treat myself to a lay in this morning snoozing till around 9 when I thought that I'd better get up because Rupert would probably be crossing his legs and everything else by then.

With the usual morning stuff out of the way we then pop out to run a few errands. First stop is homebase to pick up an electric bug zapper - this year we seem to have been inundated with flies and as much as Rupert is trying to kill all of them he's not quite mastered the fine art of fly catching quite as well as the karate kid so we figure he needs a hand. With that purchase made we then go to the pet shop to get Rupert some more food and some treats, and finally we head over to the shopping village to see if we can get Phil a new pair of Vans (trainers) since his old ones are sadly dying a miserable and slow death. They don't have the ones he wants exactly but he manages to find a substitute pair that will do for the time being.

When we get home Phil makes his self busy upstairs with his train layout by adding some gravel around the tracks and pinning the layout down so we don't have to dismantle the whole thing when we have visitors. Unfortunately whilst Rupert and I was visiting Phil to see what he was up to Rupert decided he was going to eat a rubber nipple thing quicker than I could extract it from his mouth. So now I've got to wait to see if the little bugger craps it out, which means checking his poop thoroughly every time he goes.

That's going to make my mornings even more fun!

Posted by Abi at 9:14 PM

August 19, 2006

Icing A Cake

I'm up at my usual early time today since I've got more than enough to do this morning before I head on over to my friends house for this birthday party she's arranged.

The first thing I do is sort myself and Rupert out and then I start on finishing off the birthday cake which I'd started yesterday. What needs doing is to ice the thing, but having read the instructions properly yesterday I realised that I had to leave an hour between each layer of icing and since I need to leave at 11 I really have to get my skates on. So I melt the chocolate for the icing and smother it all over the 3 tier cake and then leave it set and an hour later do the same thing again and then top the cake with chocolate coated amaretti biscuits and then pat chocolate sugar strands around the edges because you can never have too much chocolate!

I get the cake done with just enough time for me to have a shower and get ready to go and leave roughly on time, it's a shame the British transport infrastructure wasn't so helpful what with road works, traffic jams and accidents extending my journey by about an extra hour to what it usually takes.

When I get to my friends house it's nice to catch up with Richard - he's made loads of progress since I last saw him at around Easter, he can sit up on his own, join in with conversations (though his speech is a little slurred) and most definitely has his sense of humour intact. He can't walk on his own yet but can with assistance and has had his trach removed. His mobility has improved no end and seems to have the same amount of functionality on both the left and right sides and has stopped clinching his fists. Less improvement has been made on his eyesight though and everything is still blurred though the hospital has given him some glasses to help with that. He also has trouble with his short term memory and has a span of around 30 minutes or so before he starts to forget things that he's already told you or conversations that you've had. His long term memory seems to be ok and we all tried to keep stimulating it by recalling funny stories or details of things which he used to enjoy and the like and he remembered most things straight away. All in all he's doing very well, a vast improvement to say the least and I reckon with the continued rehab he'll continue to do well. I don't think he'll ever be back to his old self but he'll get somewhere close for sure.

After plenty of chat and some BBQ food I then decide it's time for me to be heading home and I get back at around 9 pm only to discover some anonymous car owner has dumped their car on our driveway effectively blocking up my parking space and also preventing Phil from getting his car out of the garage. I was miffed to say the least, after all I don't want to leave my car on the street because some miserable fucker has been inconsiderate. So I then have to do a door to door search of our neighbours to see if they've any idea who's car it is. I strike gold on the 3rd house who had spied someone parking the car there earlier and they also knew what house he'd gone into, so I march over there and after a bit of persistent knocking and door bell ringing someone finally answers and I politely ask them to shift it, whilst gritting my teeth and spitting feathers :)

A whole load of faffing around then before it's time for bed and I can tell you I'm gonna sleep like a log tonight.

Posted by Abi at 10:27 PM

August 18, 2006

Baking A Cake

I've got my day fairly well planned out today since there are a few things I need to do all of which can't wait until tomorrow or the like.

First of all I need to go to the gym since I haven't been for a couple of days, and once I've got all that out of the way I then head off to the supermarket to get all the ingredients I need for the birthday cake I've decided to make for my friend. I flicked through the book yesterday and made my mind up what to do, but the recipe requires quite a lot of chocolate and things like sour cream and buttermilk which we don't commonly have in our fridge.

Once I get home I decide that it might be a good idea to do a test run of the cake to make sure it's ok, after all I wouldn't want to make the cake and take it over to a house load of people and it to taste horrible. So with plenty of good intention I start to make the cake, but it seems to take me forever to just get the sponges done - the method for making the cake is quite complicated and fiddly and what with all the cooling time needed for various aspects of the cake I'm still cooking and it's getting later and later into the evening. So I decide that there won't be any test run cake after all and I'm just going to have to pray that it comes out ok and tastes as it should.

What with the hive of activity in the kitchen tea is a very quick affair tonight with me rustling up some spice rubbed chicken - luckily I'd reserved the coriander dip from the last time we had the same dish so I didn't need to make it again. A neat trick as it saved lots of time and something I'll do again when I need to cook dinner in a flash.

Posted by Abi at 9:17 PM

August 17, 2006

Let Down

Well, after discussing my options with Phil and my family I've made my mind up that really the accepting the vets job and shunning the IT one would be a bad mistake to make so the first thing I have to do this morning is make the call to the surgery and speak to the practice manager and tell her that I won't be able to accept the job.

They are very understanding however and have told me that they wish to keep my CV to hand should another vacancy arise to which I told them I'd be more than happy for them to do so - after all it always helps to keep options open and contacts available.

After that I then have to go into town since I've agreed to make a birthday cake for my friend Richard (the one who had the stroke) because this weekend we are having a party for him at another friends house. Of course volunteering for such a job is great at the time but I quickly realise that I don't have any decent cake recipes and probably not all the equipment I need to make a cake.

The first thing I do in town is go to the book store to see if they have any good cake books and they have a few so I pick up a variety, but one in particular looks very promising - Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell and by the time I've had a flick through I've already seen the recipe I'd like to use for the birthday cake as well as a recipe I'd like to try out tonight to satisfy Phil's sweet tooth. The other books I get which I'm hoping will be useful in the future are The Delia Collection - Baking and Cakes & Decorating, step by step which I think will be super when I've got a bit more confidence with my artistic ability as some of the projects are quite complicated but certainly have some wow factor about them.

With the books bought and some additional cake tins purchased I then pop into the supermarket to get the few extra ingredients I need to make the "French & Flourless" chocolate cake I want to make for Phil tonight and then head on home - it's already getting late and I'm not leaving myself much time to bake a cake for Phil before he comes home!

When I get back I sort Rupert out and then get on with baking the cake for Phil and I can tell just by the ingredients its going to be delicious - it is a bit like brownie mix so the cake will be very moist and chewy as well as very chocolaty as well - so much so in fact I might well have to try some myself :) Phil has to pop to a leaving party on the way home so it gives me a bit of extra time to finish the cake off and also to get myself some dinner.

Apparently my baking attempt was much appreciated and by god, did it taste scrummy!

Posted by Abi at 9:59 PM

August 16, 2006

A Taster

Up very bright and early today to make sure that I can fit in all the usual morning stuff before I head on out to the veterinary surgery for my day of "work experience" to see if it's really what I want to do.

So after I've done the washing up, made lunch for Phil and myself, had some breakfast I then settle Rupert down for the day. I've decided to put his crate over the kitchen door facing in towards the room, so the door is blocked off but he's also got his den to go in and out of should he wish to. I figure the kitchen is a good place to put him in since the lino is much easier to clean should he have any accidents. Hopefully with our neighbour coming in though he won't be bursting too much, but with free rein in the kitchen you never know what he might get up to!

With all that done I go to the surgery and have a very busy morning, what with x-rays and helping in an operation to remove a cyst from a cats head and give him some dental treatment and in the afternoon we do some more mundane stuff like steralizing surgical kits and cleaning out pens etc. All in all I had a really great day, but after discussing the facts and figures over with the practice manager I'm in 2 minds wheter or not it will be feasible for me to work the hours they want for the money they pay what with Rupert to consider. Thinking about it logically I would have to get a walker in to see to rupert in the day time while I'm away, at least until he's older and the cost of that, plus the fuel to get to and from work, well there would be very little left at the end of the day, which I just don't think is sustainable let alone practical. The other problem is that I wouldn't be able to start offical training until 2007, meaning I'd be on a trainee salary for 3 years rather than 2. I've got some more thinking to do about the whole thing but at the moment dispite it being a good opportunity I'm just not sure it's the right one at the moment.

Typically then with all this going on in my head it's sods law that at the end of the day they offer me the job asking me to give them an answer tomorrow and if it's a yes to start work on Monday. This then gives me another problem as I've another interview on Monday for an IT job, which by comparison to the vet's job is much more approriate for where I'm at personally. It pays much more, has a super benefits package and involves less hours on a daily basis - meaning I could get someone in at least twice a day to see to Rupert with out worrying about the financial consequences. I mean don't get me wrong I'm chuffed to bits I had the vets job offered to me, but I think I'd be foolish to not attend the other interview and pass up a rather appealing opportunity.

When I get home it seems Rupert has been fine and the neighbour gave him a glowing report though it's obvious he's missed the usually companionship he gets on a daily basis - I felt so guilty when I came home and he just looked at me as if to say "Oh, it's you is it!?". He's not got long to have a grump though because he's off to dog training tonight and he is much improved on the last time we went. He did really well with the "sit" command, in fact the instructor was very very impressed to say the least (and I'd go so far as to say he was the best in the class, but I'm bias!). He's still quite overwhealmed by the whole thing really and is no where near as confident as the other dogs, but at least this time he did come out from under the chair :)

With all the activity of today there is little time to do anything else this evening, especially after the food shopping arrives, so we have a sloppy dinner and then a bath and call it quits for the night - both Phil and I are knackered.

Posted by Abi at 10:09 PM

August 15, 2006

Proposition

The only thing to note today is that apart from the usual humdrum stuff I got a phone call from an agency to which I submitted my CV last week for a job I'd seen advertised locally for a web development job - I know I've said I don't want to go back to IT, but this job sounds very attractive and would give me more responsibility rather than just coding. Anyway, it seems that although I'd submitted my CV for a developer role, they would in fact like me to apply for a more senior role as a web producer (so they employers have told the recruitment agent) and on top of that they'd like to see me for an interview on Monday next week where they'll have a chat and give me a test to see if my technical skills are up to scratch.

I'm quite excited to to be honest though I'm not sure I have all the necesary skills they are looking for for the senior role but I think it's worth going along and seeing if perhaps I am what they are looking for - I think I've the advantage for coming from a techincal background so I've seen both sides of the fence which judging from some of the managers I've seen is a sadly lacking quality in most of them. Anyway, I'm not getting my hopes up but just taking each day as it comes and wait to see what happens. The company seems to be quite employee orientated too, which IMHO is a big bonus from my perspective.

What goes around comes around eh?

Posted by Abi at 9:42 PM

August 14, 2006

Mini Duo

Well, I've given my knee a weeks worth of rest so it's about time I got myself back down the gym before I give it up all together.

So I go and do the do, and it's not as harder work as I though but it's still a sweaty 2 hours of pounding myself around my usual circuit. Once I've done all that I then decide I should go into town and buy those extra bits for the scalectrix Phil and I had discussed - namely 2 new cars and some bits of track. After much deliberation I decide on getting 2 mini coopers to cover the car contingency - they are really good and have working headlights and rear lights so should look super for night driving. They've also go less bits to break off so should stand up to our rather bad driving skills :) I also get some banked corners, a jump ramp and some additional straights to make our track layout even bigger! I also decide that while I'm in town I should get a smart new pair of shoes (flats) for interviews and the like since I don't have any and they really would be handy now that I'm job hunting again.

By the time I get home there isn't much left of the afternoon and Phil is walking through the door not long after I do, and like any kid at christmas he's setting up the scalectrix with our new additions as quickly as he can open the packets :) I let him get on with that while I cook dinner and after we've eaten we have even more races (with and without lights) though I have to say the night driving is somewhat tiresome on the eyes!

Posted by Abi at 9:31 PM

August 13, 2006

Miserable

Urghhh the weather has taken a turn for the worse today. Its raining, it's cold and it's windy - that's 2 of my hated weather phenomena all rolled up into one day so that's a bit of a shitter!

Anyway despite the weather we've had a semi productive / relaxed day. We pop out in the morning to get a few things. We need a storage box to put all the scalectrix bits into and also I need some bits for rupert, like poop scoop bags, some more puppy treats and of course those impulse buys like another toy and a flashy light thing to put on his harness to make him more visible in the night :) We also nip to the supermarket to get some stuff for tea and the vitals to make up Phil's lunches for next week and after all of that we head home.

We watch Hostel today, and despite the hype of it being the "sickest film" ever I have to say I was unperturbed by it, which probably means I'm a natural born sicko or something :) But seriously I've seen worse horror films than that, I think the general public are just all wooses or something! Sign of the times I'm afraid :) Later on, after we've had tea we have a race or 2 on the scalectrix but unfortunately we had a bit of an RTA involving a Renault formula 1 car and a pekingese who inadvertently stepped onto the track as Phil was zooming around a corner. No harm done, but Rupert decided the sofa was the best place to sit after that.

Posted by Abi at 9:22 PM

August 12, 2006

High Tea

Wow, it's been a busy old day for me today, I don't feel like I've stopped much all morning since I've got plenty to do before my visitors arrive this afternoon.

First of all I'm heading off to the supermarket at 8.30 to get the ingredients I need for my cooking session later and after I've swanned around the aisles for an hour trying to find everything I make it out but not before I hear them announce that they are having a sale on diesel making it the cheapest price I've seen for many a month now. So once I've loaded up the car with the shopping I then fill the car with juice to make the most of the cut prices.

On the way home I nip into town and pick up the other half of what I need (ie non-food stuffs) such as a variety of baking trays and a cake tin with a removable bottom and by 10.30 I'm back home, unloading all the shopping and start cooking my nibblets for later.

I've decided on cooking a whole host of goodies, the first of which is banoffee pie which takes a bit more preparation than the rest of the stuff and once I've done all I can on that I stick it in the fridge and leave it to chill. I then make some dark chocolate and hazelnut muffins which are quick enough for me to make and cook before it's time for us to drop Rupert back over to the vet to see how he's doing.

The vet was very pleased with Ruperts progress, and you can see that Rupert is so much happier today and back to his old self. He gets another jab of antibiotics and also a prescription of special food for a couple of days which will be easy on his tummy and also some antibiotics in the form of pills that I need to shove down his throat for 5 days. Bless him, he didn't even flinch when he had the jab and we weighed him too and it appears he's put on a KG since we've had him so making good progress on that front too.

Back at the house and I continue cooking, finishing off the banoffee pie and then making Caramelised Onion Tartlets with Goats' Cheese and Thyme along with some Savoury Mini Muffins with Two Flavourings (goats' cheese, red onion and rosemary and Gruyere, sage and onion). I tell you something, it's bloody hard work cooking lots of stuff at the same time, not only for the logistics of the matter, but also keeping up with the washing up and keeping counter space clear to actually do stuff on, but I got there in the end, even if I did have to finish stuff off while my guests were here.

We had a really pleasant afternoon though and all enjoyed the food lots, including the rather scrummy carrot cake that was brought along and it was good to catch up with the ladies since I'd not seem them in quite a while.

Posted by Abi at 10:05 PM

August 11, 2006

Vomit

Oh dear, it looks like we've got a sick member of the family today :(

When I got up this morning I went downstairs to let Rupert out. Now, I usually open his crate and give him a hug when I let him out, and this morning when I do that I notice that he's got a rather peculiar aroma about him. I can't quite place it but when I take a quick gander at his bed I realise what the smell is and it looks like rupert has been ill all over the place. Shucks. So I let him out and give him his breakfast, but it's not long before his breakfast as extracted itself from his tummy and landed itself on the carpet. So that's twice he's been ill and he's looking very sorry for himself indeed.

I decide to leave him alone for a while whilst I cleaned the house, but it's not long before the poor blighter has been ill again and really is looking worse for wear. So I decide that I should take him down to the vets to get him checked out and luckily they've got a free appointment just after 5.

So after he's been sick again (3 times now) it's time to go to the vet and the poor little sausage really isn't his perky self. The vet and I narrow the cause down to a stomach bug which he has probably caught from his dog training lesson since that's the only thing different in his life this week, and he gets a couple of jabs (some antibiotics and something to settle his stomach) and some hydration fluids which I've got to replace his water with. He also gets his temperature taken, and if I've ever seen an undignified look in a dog it was exactly at the moment the vet put the thermometer up his jaxy, he didn't like that much. I'm also told to give him a mashed up boiled egg later on this evening and to make an appointment for tomorrow so he can have a further check up to make sure he's recovering.

Back home and the throwing up has stopped but Rupert is still very quiet, but by 9 when it's time for me to give him his egg he's perked up considerably and thoroughly enjoys his dinner, I've never seen his dish so clean! So after he's eaten I put him to bed, but tonight he's not so happy to be alone and does a bit of whimpering before he settles to sleep. I guess it's because he's been out of sorts all day, so nothing to worry about on the grand scale of things. I just hope he's better by tomorrow.

Posted by Abi at 9:43 PM

August 10, 2006

And another...

I've got another interview today for another job as a veterinary nurse which causes me a bit of trouble since I'm running rather short on smart clothes to wear to such an occasion, but after a little perseverance and a lot of imagination I come up with something half suitable and wind my way to the surgery.

But as I'm quickly realizing it's commonly the case for student veterinary nurses that the pay and conditions are rather rubbish. The pay is only just the minimum wage, you only get 15 days holidays and you have to pay towards your examination costs as well. This position would also not be based in once place, but over a larger area covering satellite surgeries depending on where you're needed and the rota is strict meaning that I wouldn't be able to go to the evening classes I've booked for September or in fact continue Rupert on his dog training sessions. I've also got the added disadvantage of Rupert in terms of leaving him on his own for long periods of time, I mean we do up to 4 hours now, but 9 is pushing it and I'd have to get a dog walker / sitter in at least one a day to see to him and make sure he's ok. The only plus side is that the people were very nice and on that basis I've agreed to do a voluntary day next week to get a feel of the place.

Don't get me wrong I'd love to work with animals but it seems perhaps in this life time it's just not the right thing for me to do on this occasion, there are too many external factors that need addressing. I don't know, maybe next year would be better for me, but in the meantime I might just have to find something else to do instead.

Posted by Abi at 9:14 PM

August 9, 2006

Dog Training

Most of the day has been very boring, especially since I'm not going to the gym at the moment because of my dodgy knee, that means I've got at least 3 hours extra to fill with something, and sadly the only thing I can think of to fill it them with is by playing The Sims 2 (well I wouldn't actually call it playing The Sims because all I managed to do was build a house!).

The evening is a bit more exciting because it's Rupert's first dog training lesson. Luckily Phil was able to get home in time so that he could come along with us and we get there in plenty of time for Rupert to have a sniff around and see what's what. He gets lots of fuss and attention off the other dog owners who had a variety of other breeds with them, most of which were sweet enough just a bit hyper and noisy. There was however one husky dog who seemed to be more than and handful and not in a playful sort of way. I'd go so far to say as it looked a bit vicious if you ask me. It didn't help that it was a rescue dog I suppose, so no one knows it's history, but what also didn't help was that it was pretty close to Rupert who didn't like it in the slightest and spent the entirety of the session rooted underneath Phil's chair with very little intention of moving or participating in anything, not even the tempter of sausage could get him to do much! :) It was lucky at the floor was of the polished wooden sort because it made it much easier to drag Rupert along when he decided his legs didn't work anymore :) I'm hoping next week will be easier and he'll be more comfortable and relaxed, but as it goes I think I've paid the money just to get him used to being around other dogs rather than learning new tricks :)

By the time we're back from the class Phil is so hungry he decides to get fish and chips for tea where as I make a half arsed effort at cooking a chicken breast with some other stuff. Not hugely enjoyable but food all the same.

Posted by Abi at 9:00 PM

August 8, 2006

Faster

It's an even earlier start for me this morning than normal since I've got to get myself organised to go to the gym for 8.30 am for a session with my personal trainer. Over a month ago when I booked in it seemed like a good idea at the time because what with it being August and all doing the session in the morning ran less of a risk of it being boiling hot and me struggling to do anything. Oh for the benefit of long term weather predictions, because I need not have worried about the heat as it's cool as a cucumber outside and I've also realised I'm not a "really early" morning person :) Never mind though, I'm up and doing and well ahead of my normal schedule and down the gym in plenty of time.

My session went well and the knee support I got yesterday helped no end. In terms of progression my trainer has upped my weights and also the speed on the treadmill and was generally very impressed with all the work I'd been doing. I did ask for some advice on my knee and he told me to make sure I warm up on the elliptical trainer before I start on the treadmill and also to stop if it hurts, and then when I get home to make sure I ice pack my knee for a good 5 - 10 minutes. I hope my knee does rectify itself because I don't want it to become a hindrance to my exercise, especially since I've come so far.

When I get home I grab a shower and then shortly after head out to drop off my CV to another vet surgery that is advertising for a student nurse. Don't know if I'll get anywhere with it but it's worth a shot, if you don't try I guess you don't get anywhere do you? On the way home I also nip to the garden centre to pick up a few things, some superglue for Phil to repair both the Scalextric cars, yet another spice rack to accommodate my growing collection and also some compost to repot the mint plant I got from Tesco as it needs a bit more space to grow.

Even after doing all this it's quite early still in the day so I'm left pretty much to my own devices and after a period of boredom I decide to give the lawn a cut and have a bit of a tidy up outside, I do the washing and then move on to sorting out my wardrobe and eradicating any more clothes that are too big for me - I get rid of yet another bin liner full of them!

When Phil comes home we have some dinner and then Phil sets up the Scalextric for another race or 50. He designs and new track layout tonight which has a nice hair pin turn in it but despite the sharp corners my BMW seems to be doing much better at sticking to the track and I give Phil quite a good run for his money :)

Posted by Abi at 9:37 PM

August 7, 2006

Treats

Phil is taking one of his many remaining holidays today so it gives us the opportunity to spend plenty of time together by nipping into Oxford to indulge in a junk food lunch which I'd been promising myself for some time now as one of my goal treats.

First of all though I go down to the gym, and I do my usual routine but I'm constantly aware that my knee isn't quite right. It's not that it's painful or anything like that, but more like there is a weakness there which you're aware of and if you catch it right it feels a bit like your knee is giving way. I can only thing I've twisted it at some point and not noticed at the time. I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on it and get a support for it to prevent any more damage that my exercise might cause.

When I get back from the gym we then get ready to head on into Oxford and shortly after we're sat at our table in Pizza Hut and waiting for our meal. I have to say though wracked with guilt I did enjoy the meal so that made up for thinking about how many hours I might need to spend down the gym to circumvent any fat deposits building up! After we'd eaten we then go to get my knee support and then go to the toy shop with the intention of getting some gravel for Phil's train track. We do get that, but also end up with another purchase in the form of a Scalextric set! Yah, talk about a blast from the past - we used to have a Scalextric when we were kids but my sister and I burnt out the cars so quickly that my Mum eventually banned us from playing with it because it was getting to expensive to replace the cars :)

We then go back to the car and nip to the fish shop to get some replacement bulbs for the tanks and I also pick up some cockles in the shell for my puffer fish to give them more of a challenge at dinner time and then we go home.

As you can imagine it's not too long after we've walked through the door that Phil has laid out the Scalextric and we're zooming around like bandits seeing who can get the fastest time. I have to say Rupert didn't think too much of it, but it provided Phil and I with hours of entertainment at the end of which we'd manage to inflict body work damage to both cars - me losing the nose off mine and Phil ripping his front wing off and losing a break light! hehehe :) It was super fun and I think Phil was pleasantly surprised at my driving skills, I reckon I gave him a good run for his money :)

By the end of our grand prix there is just enough time to talk Rupert out for a walk and then we're all tired enough that going to bed seems like a good option.

Posted by Abi at 9:53 PM

August 6, 2006

Parasol

It's Sunday, so by any standard it's a day of not doing very much in the grand scale of things.

I do however realise that upon waking and getting out of bed my knee is damaged. I don't know why, I don't know when but it's not right. It feels weak when I put a full lock on it and it's difficult going up and down stairs. It's almost as if I've twisted it or something, or I've done something to the outside of it as that is where most of the discomfort is. The only thing I can think off is that either I've done too much on the treadmill of late, or it's delayed damage from my riding which is only now rearing it's ugly head. Sucks really since I don't want a cronky knee to get in the way of my exercise so I'm going to have to go steady on it for a while.

The only other significant event of today is that Phil and I go out to see if we can find a replacement parasol for the garden since our last one got broken in that storm we had a few weeks back. We try numerous homebases to see if we can get one but to no avail, with most of their summer stock gone and them replacing it with autumn and winter stuff (it's only August!!!) but we do strike it lucky at the local Blooms centre who have a fair selection of the things. This time we go for a metal one rather than a wooden one and its feels a fair bit more substantial and hopefully will last any breeze more significant than an asthmatic breathing on it.

Posted by Abi at 9:11 PM

August 5, 2006

Hypersensitive

Well, I'm pleased to report that the new mattress was very comfortable, however Mr Phil has an issue with the new bedding that I've bought.

It seems that when I got into bed last night, Phil has taken the duvet cover off and removed the pillow case from his pillow, and under close interrogation it appears that the 100% cotton covers are not gentle enough for his baby soft skin, in fact he likened it so sleeping in a bed wrapped in grease proof paper! Cheeky bandit, all I can say is that perhaps he's not used to new sheets and their crispness, or the benefits of cotton bedding... but for sure he's adamant that he doesn't like the sheets and isn't going to sleep with them on the bed. I did try to explain that the new stuff is the same as the old stuff, it's just we've not slept in them for, ooh I dunno, at least 700 days and worn them in, neither have they been spun around a washing machine at 3000 rpm on a regular basis being blasted with fabric conditioner. We do have a bit of a scuffle about this and eventually we settle on the idea that Phil will sleep with one of my uber soft fleecy blankets while I'll sleep with the duvet with the cover on. I don't have a problem with it after all but then perhaps my skin is rather crocadillian in comparison to Phil's peachy covering.

In light of all this, this morning I put the sheets in the washer to see if I can make them more to Phil's liking and once that is done its time for Rupert to have his fortnightly bath and bouffant management session. He was a bit better in the bath but rather like a sponge he soaks up so much water he usually weights twice as much when you lift him out of the bath and before you can wrap a towel around him his shaken himself from head to tail getting most of said water over you, the bathroom and anything else that maybe in the splatter zone.

Once he'd dried off we gave him a hair cut, this time a number 1 all over (well that was the intention but Rupert was getting fidgety so he's got a number 1 over the top half and the rest is all a bit long! We'll try again tomorrow to tidy him up a bit.

Posted by Abi at 9:48 PM

August 4, 2006

New Bed

I'm stuck at home today until our new mattress has been delivered so I spend the morning mooching around, and then I get a phone call telling me that my delivery slot is between 10 and 12 in the morning. I don't have very long then to wait and by about 11 the men are knocking at the door with the mattress stuck between them.

I manage to sweet talk them into taking the mattress upstairs for me (since it says on their delivery guidelines that they are not obliged to take the mattress any further than the front door) and after I've put some washing on (the sheets from the old bed) I head on out to get some new bedding and a new mattress protector thingy (and no, we ain't taking about a waterproof one!)

I decide that the best place to get the stuff I need is down at John Lewis, which is a 30 minute trip down the m40 for me and from past experience I know they do good bedding even though its a tad pricey. Once I get there I spend a good while deciding on what to get, make my 160 quid's worth of purchases and head on home.

By the time I'm back at our pad I'm starving so I get a bite to eat and then set about organising upstairs - so moving the old mattress off the old bed and putting it in the guest bedroom out of the way, putting the new mattress on the bed frame and making the bed up with the new sheets. It's hefty, hot and sweaty work but I finally get there and it looks lovely, and on a quick test starfish challenge I have to say it's very comfy too :)

It's not long till Phil gets home who also checks out the new bedroom furnishings and he also has an early night too to make sure he's given it a good test drive in the 30 - 40 days we have to decide if we're going to keep it or not.

Posted by Abi at 9:25 PM

August 2, 2006

More Exercise

After a morning of the usual stuff I go to the gym as it appears I don't have any of the nasty muscle soreness today even after my riding, so I can only assume that all those muscles I've not used in some considerable time have actually got accustomed to being put into motion.

My session down the gym goes very well, everything seems to be that bit easier now the temperatures have fallen to 20 degrees or less, we've even got rain and the sky is overcast - who knows maybe we've had summer already and this is the onslaught of autumn!

When I get home there is enough time for a spot of lunch and then since Phil enjoyed the gingerbread men I made last week I decide to make some more for him. It's not as if they are hard work to do and this time I have a bit more fun decorating them with butter icing, smarties, icing and hundreds and thousands (tiny balls of sweet stuff). I think I get a bit carried away though because by the time I've finished it's not long before Phil is walking through the door and I need to get tea on the go.

Later on we take Rupert out for a walk, he's getting much better now in terms of experiencing new things on his circuit, though has developed this habit of being very nosy when other people walk past, he loves staring at them!

Posted by Abi at 9:31 PM

August 1, 2006

Tally Ho!

I'm off out again today as I've got another riding lesson booked, this time at a different riding school south of Oxford.

Not being sure where it is exactly I decide to leave a bit early so I'm not late, and after the Sat Nav failing to find the place I resort to asking a rather old lady who was sat at a bus stop if she had any idea where the riding school was, and after she'd toddled over the road with her walking stick she gave me some sort of idea and I managed to find the place.

Anyway I arrive in plenty of time and get a chance to see what the people in the lesson before me are up to from the viewing area of the indoor school. They all seem to be very much into their jumping which I have to say I'm not, but it was interesting to see them practice. I also have a gander around the yards and the horses and I'm then introduced to my instructor for my 30 minute lesson. She's a nice enough person, though I have to say after hearing her shout "AaaahhhhBee" in a French accent across the school for 30 minutes it began to grate a bit (that's probably cause she had to keep picking me up about the position of my lower leg, but in my defence I was still nursing a groin injury which made things uncomfortable to say the least!).

I had a great lesson though and was let lose on my own with the horse, so no lunge rope this time. I made sure I was much more relaxed this time on the horse in the hope that I wouldn't stiffen up as much as Friday. The only slightly crap thing was that because they were not sure of my ability I was put on the a proper riding school horse (the type that knows what it's doing and is pretty stubborn at the best of times). However, now they know what I can do the chances are I'll be put on a different horse next time.

On my way home I stop off at the super market to get some baking ingredients as I'm going to make some peanut butter cookies when I get home which are another treat I can have on my diet. It was a little strange walking around the aisles with my riding kit on, but what the hell I got what I needed and it's not long before I'm home and cooking in the kitchen with my ever attentive helper in the form of Rupert. The cookies came out just fine and taste really nice, however after all this time of not eating sweet stuff they certainly ranked high up there on the scale of sugar highs!

I also make sure I do some stretches when I get back - but I'm not aided by the fact that Rupert wants to sit on my lap whilst I'm sat on the floor and despite my best efforts to ignore him the consistant dropping of toys on my legs made it all a bit tricky!

Posted by Abi at 9:03 PM

July 31, 2006

Stretching Out

It's pretty much a normal day here but today when I go down the gym I want to make a concerted effort to try and stretch out my muscles which are still aching somewhat after my riding session.

I have to say that my usual session down the gym was a bit harder with my damaged bits but I got through it in the end, and in my cool down section I spend a lot longer pulling out all the tight bits. Judging from the amount of pain I had at various points of stretching I'd say I've definitely done something to my adductor muscles in my left hand inner thigh - just going into a small stretch absolutely killed and it was a bit like pulling teeth! I go as far as I can before I might inflict more damage than whats already done so I'll just have to make sure I do my stretches sooner rather than later when I next go riding (which is tomorrow!).

On the way home from the gym I pick up a few items that I need to make tea, we're having spice rubbed chicken tonight and I need some coriander for the dip that goes with it.

Not much on the books other than that I'm afraid, though I have rung up about another possible stable job - this one is a bit further away than the last, but it appears they are much more of a professional outfit with a modern yard, but I'm not pinning my hopes up just yet.

Posted by Abi at 9:40 PM

July 30, 2006

Marathon

Considering it's a Sunday I'm quite busy whilst Phil chills out at home and looks after Rupert when I'm out of the house.

First things to be done include starting to clean the house. I can't rightly remember the last time I gave it a good scrubbing from top to bottom, certainly before we got Rupert, but with Phil at home and able to keep an eye on him I'm free to get on a start with the dusting etc.

After I've done downstairs and some of upstairs I nip out for an hour or so to do a few things. I need to get some sort of storage device for all of Rupert's toys which seem to be all over the floor - he's like a teenager, just leaves stuff where it is once he's done with it :) I also want to go to the gym, but not to do any exercise, I'm still way to stiff to do that, but to give some support to one of the instructors who is running 26 miles on a treadmill for charity. I get to the gym in time to see him do the last 4 miles and I'm gobsmacked at his determination and will power - you could see he was totally exhausted, but kept on going till the bitter end and even sped up the treadmill to its max capacity (12.4 miles and hour) for the final mile so he could get a good time (he needs it to qualify for a competition he's entering next year) which was somewhere in the region of 2 hours 43 minutes.

After the gym I then go to tesco to pick up some bits for our tea - I'm trying out a new recipe for zesty crab cakes and creamy pepper sauce, and as usual I don't have many of the ingredients I need, including celery seeds which I've never seen on a supermarket shelf! But I manage to get most things, with a few substitutes which I hope will work ok.

When I get home I unload the shopping and then finish off the cleaning and it's a relief that the house is back to some sort of order now - having little Rupert wandering around doesn't half increase the amount of vacuuming you have to do :)

There isn't much left of the day by the time everything is done and it's time for tea soon enough, which Phil lends a hand with. Have to say I enjoyed the crab cakes lots, though Phil thought they tasted a bit "weird" :)

Posted by Abi at 9:03 PM

July 29, 2006

Core Stability

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch... I could just do a whole blog entry repeating the same word because really that's all I have to say :)

Honest to God, I feel like I've been run over a bus after my riding lesson yesterday, so much so in fact it's a real struggle to get out of bed and actually move myself from A to B without holding on to something for support or taking an eternity to get there on all fours since that would be the least pain inducing way of doing it!

My shoulders ache, my abdominal muscles feel like they've each done 1000 abcrunches each, my inner thighs, well, feels like someone has ripped them out and I've got bruising in places that only Phil gets to see (and me too if I look in a mirror at a funny angle ;)) However, I'm sure it's done wonders for strengthening all those little muscles that never get a work out and so will be useful towards improving my general strength.

Needless to say then I've taken today very easy, only popping out briefly to go for an interview at a local stable for a part time job. I won't say it went well because I don't think it did, I didn't like the owner of the yard for a start and the stables were in a very shoddy state making it that much more difficult to do any basic duties - so I think I'll chalk that one down to experience! Never mind I'm sure there will be other opportunities.

We have a make shift tea tonight - well that was the idea but when Phils jacket potato came out of the microwave it had shrunk to the size of a bullet and was about as hard. So he ordered take out whilst I had crunchy tuna salad with sweet potato fries, which was quite nice and appreciated as a quick fix to fill my hunger.

Posted by Abi at 9:42 PM

July 28, 2006

Riding

Well I'm pretty pent up with a mixture of excitement and nervousness today since I've got my first riding lesson in 15 years at 2pm - I've no idea how I'll do and it feels like I'm waiting for an exam all morning until we have to get off to the riding stables.

To fill the time a bit in the AM I go to the gym. I know it's probably not the best idea in the world considering the inevitable pain I'm going to be putting myself through later, but it's a scheduled day for exercise so really I should go and get on with it. The exercise goes well, and luckily for me Mr X isn't there so I don't have to put my guard up. Also because I go earlier in the morning than usual it's cooler weather wise and I have a much more efficient session. The heart rate monitor and wrist receiver I have are very handy to monitor this, the only thing is that you have to make sure you're weight is kept up to date in its memory banks. So, since I've lost 3 stone now I need to adjust it (I usually do it every stone or so) and it usually changes my results quite a lot. What I'm noticing now is that I have to work a lot harder to burn off the same amount of calories that I was previously. I guess this is because I weigh less and my heart rate is much lower now during exercise than before. This is all good news I suppose but does mean I need to push my regime up a notch, which in itself isn't such good news! :) So the gym goes fine and I make my way home to get ready to go riding.

I also finally get to speak to the head girl of a local stables who I've been playing telephone tag with for the past week and we had a chat about the part time job they've got on offer. It sounds interesting and so we've arranged to meet up tomorrow morning to have a more face to face talk. I hope it goes well, but we'll just have to wait and see.

When we get to the stables the instructor has been caught in traffic on the m25 so we have to wait around for an hour and while we do that I show Phil around the stables - I don't think he's been around horses before so it's all a bit novel for him, and finally the instructor turns up and quickly after that I'm standing on a mounting block ready to get on Bolero, who is my stead for the next 45 mins.

I have to say it felt very unnatural for the first 10 minutes though slowly the old feelings came back. My session was on the lunge rope this time since I haven't ridden for so long (a lunge rope is like a big lead that the horse is attached to while the instructor hangs onto the other end so he has an amount of control over the horse as well as the rider) and we started off with the basics of riding position, balance etc all at walking pace. Once I felt more comfy we then went onto trotting which was a bit more difficult - trying to remember to rise from the knee, squeezing with my legs, getting the rhythm right and all of that, and it was hard work too, so it was almost a relief to get onto the cantering which I immediately got the hang off as if I'd never stopped doing it. Luckily my horse had a very comfortable deep seated canter so it was easy to relax into. In fact the instructor was quite impressed with me saying that it was a better canter than one of his other students who he'd been teaching for years!

After 45 minutes of doing the above I'm knackered and so is the horse so its a little bit of a relief to dismount (I'd forgotten how far down it is from the back of a 16.3 hh horse!) and when my feet hit the concrete my legs turn to jelly! I could hardly walk! I was so crippled in fact Phil had to drive home because I was in no condition to do so :)

Despite that though I had a great time and it was fantastic to be back in the saddle, I can't wait to go again!

When we get home, I get changed and try to recover a little bit and then we head on out again to the bed store to buy a new mattress. We've decided on getting one of those memory foam beds as we've tried them out before and both agree they are quite nice. They are not cheap though and after a bit of haggling, well to be honest we don't get anywhere because it turns out if we get a discount we don't get the option to return the mattress within a month if we're unhappy with it - and for the amount of money they were offering off the bed it wasn't worth it. Never mind, it's ordered now and we're expecting delivery of it next week. It will be nice to be able to turn over in bed without the springs groaning :)

Anyway, as you can imagine after such a busy day the evening is left to do absolutely nothing other than eat dinner. Phil is so tired he goes to bed at 7.30 pm and I just mooch around until it's time to take Rupert out for his walk and then to put him to bed for the night.

Posted by Abi at 9:09 PM

July 26, 2006

Gingerbread Men

After the events of yesterday it's rather nice to get back to my hum-drum life of sweet sanity and normality!

Luckily for me today it's a rest day from the gym and so I make the best of my time by going into town to get a few supplies. I need to get a puppy gate since I don't think its a good idea for Rupert to go upstairs unattended, which he's done a few times, the last of which resulted in him pooping up there - I've a feeling the reason for that is that he got up there but couldn't get down again and so did his business where he saw fit. I manage to get the puppy gate and then head on over to the supermarket to get some bits to make some gingerbread men. Phil had said a couple of days ago he fancied them (not in a gay sort of way but in a sweet tooth sort of way) so I thought I'd bake him a treat this afternoon.

When I get home I unpack all the shopping and then start putting up the puppy gate which in actually fact has turned out to be more of a puppy portcullis, it's huge! I get some lunch then set about making the ginger bread men. I've never made them before but the recipe was easy to follow and after an hour or so I've got 2 dozen little fella's cooling on a wire rack waiting to be decorated up. Once they've cooled of I set about icing them in the usual gingerbread man style except for one where I put a special effort in and decorate it to look like Phil, complete with blonde hair and work uniform :) hehehe - it's quite a good likeness to be honest! :)

I've also spent part of the day playing telephone tag with a lady from a local stables who is looking for some part time help which I thought would be a good way to get me out of the house again - I guess I'll just have to wait for her to return my call again.

Not much else going on really except the weather is still hot and humid leaving Rupert and myself somewhat lazy and tired. We go out for a walk again tonight and there are no major dilemmas to get over except for the fact he scoffed a bit of stale bread on the path quicker than I could get to it and extract it from his gob. He swallowed it whole the little git! Serve him right if he has the shits in the morning :)

Posted by Abi at 9:03 PM

July 25, 2006

Fatal Attraction

You know, my life is pretty ordinary on a daily basis, but today has been a one off - a series of extraordinary events so to speak that have left me dumbfounded and feeling a little icky to say the least.

The first that happens is down the gym. Over the past couple of weeks I've noticed a new face down there and without putting too finer point on it the bloke has obvious mental problems (I'll call him Mr X). I don't have a problem with that, but I'm there to do my exercise and so in the same way I treat everyone else down the gym I don't speak to them unless I'm spoken to, and so I've never had any verbal contact with him whatsoever. I have however noticed on the odd occasion that feeling that someone is staring at you - you know what I mean, you can't see them but you know they're doing it.

So I'd just finished my exercise and I'm quite happily minding my own business sat in the corner of the stretching area and I've just gotten myself to a very complicated stretch after 5 minutes of trying, when in my peripheral vision I spy that I'm being approached - a head on collision on a mission and I've an awful sinking feeling its Mr X judging from the manky trainers, skinny legs and blue shorts. I mean come on, I can be as social as the next person but I'm tired having just run my arse ragged for 2 hours, I'm sat in a corner with no obvious escape and my legs are in a position that only bendy barbie could manage after a good oiling - I'm not really in the mood to make chit chat with anyone!

If you can imagine then I'm stuck in some sort of contortionists hell, or more to the point like a rabbit in the head lights. As much as I try avoiding any eye contact what so ever its to no avail and within seconds I sense Mr X looming over me. And as if that wasn't bad enough, not only is he hovering over my like some demon from hell he's also sweating on me too... drip, drip, drip - yes, that's right, his sweat hitting my skin, in particular his sweat landing on my cleavage. After he's finished perspiring on me he then crouches down and makes him self quite comfy on the floor, introduces himself and goes to shake my hand. Ok, I'm a nice person I'll shake his hand, but from what is a quite ordinary greeting the traditional handshake quickly progresses to him slobbering all over my mitt in the over gratuitous fashion of kissing it! WTF!... I can tell you at this point my initial thoughts of "Well, I guess I must still have it even if I am getting chatted up by nutter" quickly turned into "Holy shit, I don't need another creep harassing me, I've already had 2 stalkers in my brief existence, I don't want to add a 3rd to the list!"

Ok so now my guard is up, much like a rottweiler changes his tune if someone took his bone away and I decide that the pleasantries are over and I need to hatch a plan to get away before things turn ugly. With that in mind then I begin to extract myself from my rather contorted position and say things like "well I really should be going now" (you can add a hysterical laugh in here if you like). But, as if it would be that easy. Oh no, no sooner am I on my feet he grabs my hand again and chows down on it again! I mean come on! I'm not a free for all you know! And like it couldn't get any worse he then lunges at my face and plants one on my cheek and tries to wrap his arm around my shoulders. NO FECKING WAY IS THIS GOING ANY FURTHER!! And although my prime instinct is to either come out with a suitably nasty and non politically correct retort or give him a nasty right hook followed by a quick kick in the nuts I decide on the somewhat less damaging rebuttal of "Oh, I don't think my boyfriend would like that" quickly followed by me extracting myself from his vice like grip and scampering off to the sanctity of the ladies changing room, where I hide out until he's safely removed himself from my immediate vicinity.

When I think the coast is clear I decide to make a run for it and in my haste I run into an 80 year old bloke, and I mean literally - so not only have I just been courted by mad man I'm now going to be responsible for killing off an old timer by mowing him down like a steam roller on my mission to escape the clutches of an overly friendly nut case. Of course I apologise to which I get the rather saucy reply "Oh, don't worry about it my dear, you're rather nice to bump into". Actually scratch that because I don't get the reply at all, in fact my tits get the reply because for every moment hes talking to me he's in fact have a one way conversation with my breasts! I mean what is this?! Is the whole bloody gym full of letches or what?! It was a relief to get out of there! And I'm seriously hoping that both my suitors are not at the gym next time I go.

With all that cuffufle it was quite pleasant to drop off at the shop and pick up the few things we need for tea - Phil has a fancy for some lager tonight so I get that and some chicken breasts to make the curry, I dunno, about 10 quids worth of stuff altogether so you can imagine my surprise when the bill comes to 20 quid. Darn, I know I haven't bought booze in a while but is it really that expensive? So I check the bill and they've only charged me for the lager 4 times over! Doh! So I point it out to the cashier who is very apologetic and not only gives me a refund for the difference but also gives me the lager for free too! Yah! Result!

All in all then a day I wouldn't wish to repeat any time in the future (apart from the free booze bit). And after scrubbing myself clean in the shower of my sweat, Mr X's sweat and saliver on old geezers perverted stare I almost feel human again.

Posted by Abi at 9:16 PM

July 24, 2006

Close Encounters

It's an ordinary sort of day today and things are more to the norm than at the weekend. So I get on with the usual stuff and then nip down to the gym after my 2 day absence.

The gym goes well and the rest of the day zips by with me doing the usual job search and the like and soon enough it's time for me to start dinner, which is no mean feat when it's so humid outside. I have steak and Phil has sausage and mash and by the time I've finished mine I'm sweating a cob.

I then take Rupert out for his walk - its just me and he for tonight since Phil decided on an early night after his weekend of working and the trip around the block was slightly more eventful than normal. First of all we come across a bit old mongrel dog called Meg who was very friendly and gave Rupert a good old sniff all over which he didn't mind too much. Next, was a springer spaniel who was also friendly but much more lively than Meg which I think freaked Rupert out a bit and resulted in him sitting on my feet with his tail between his legs. No sooner have we moved off once again then we meet 2 girls scoffing pies who take a shine to Rupert and give him plenty of fuss and attention which he rather enjoyed shown by lots of tail wagging.

By the time we get home all the excitement has pooped Rupert out and it's a job to get him to go to bed because he just wants to lay down exactly where he is - bless his cottons. I'm pleased though that he got to encounters lots of new things tonight, especially the other dogs because it means he'll be less bothered when his dog training starts.

Posted by Abi at 9:34 PM

July 23, 2006

Jodhpurs

Well, even though it's a Sunday it doesn't really feel like it since Phil has gone into work leaving me on my own with Rupert so I need to find something to fill the time in.

Eventually I decided on taking a trip out to a large saddlery store about 30 miles from home and pick up some jodhpurs for my riding lesson on Friday. I'd already rung the store yesterday to see if they had what I wanted in stock, which they did and so since I've got little else to do I get myself over there to see if the jods they'd reserved for me would come anywhere close to fitting.

When I get there I have a browse around the store and then ask the assistant to get me the jods. I was worried they wouldn't even get close to my wodge, but hurrah! They did! I'm so chuffed that I fitted into some store bought ones you just don't know, because it was that or having to get a pair hand made for me :( Anyway, I made my purchase - they are lovely full seat jods - so basically have a suede bum bit which extends down the inside leg for better grip and the like and the rest are nice stretchy elastic stuff. They cost a bit, but never mind, now all I've got to get is some decent footware.

And on that note on the way home I stop off at a local store to revisit some riding shoes they had which I saw the other day, but on trying them I didn't like them so gave them a miss. I had seen a nice pair in the other shop I'd just come from, but at 70 quid I thought they were a bit expensive. So I guess I'll have to have a look around the Internet to see if I can find something else instead.

And that really is all the excitement of the day - neither Phil or I fancy anything heavy for tea so I have an omelette and Phil has a mini pizza thing and once we've taken Rupert out for his nightly walk we're all ready for bed. I think we'll all sleep well tonight.

Posted by Abi at 10:30 PM

July 22, 2006

Acquiring

A rest day from the gym, but I've plenty of other stuff to keep me occupied.

For starters, I've got to get to the stables I rang yesterday for 10 am to meet up with the instructor, who turns out to be the trainer for our national team of dressage riders and a consequence of which is he charges quite a bit for a 45 minute session. However, he doesn't think I'm too heavy for the horse and toboot he's a nice chap which I got on with quite well, so I've arranged a riding lesson for next Friday at 2pm :) It's a bit of a treat because I'm hoping by that time I will have finally reached a big goal in my weight loss, that being losing 3 stone in total and so to reward myself I've decided that 45 minutes of arse ache is the perfect prize for actually getting to a weight where I can ride again :)

After the stables I then head on into Oxford to go pick up Phils train that I'd reserved yesterday. Not only is it blisteringly hot but there are thousands of people in Oxford too, which made it doubly hard work trying to lug the huge hefty thing through the town and back to the car. It was a good job the shop dude had kindly wrapped up the train and put a make shift handle on the box so I could carry it with slightly less difficulty. What was also nice was the 10% discount I got which made it financially sound for me to treat Phil to something a bit extra in the form of a rolling road (which is basically a bit of track and runners you can put the train on and get it running without it actually going anywhere). I thought it might be a good idea because from what Phil has told me about these live steam trains they are quite difficult to control and get running, so perhaps the rolling road will be a good place to get the feel of the thing and how it works before he lets it loose on the track layout.

It was helluva job getting the purchases back to the car and by the time I'd got to the multi storey and gone up several flights of stairs I was dripping with more sweat than had I have gone to the gym. Thus, the car's air conditioning was a most welcome relief to say the least.

On the way home I also nip into the Argos Extra store as I want to get an electric waffle cooker thing since I'd seen a recipe I'd like to try which required such a contraption. Well lets face it, any thing that involves waffles on a diet it's worth spending the 30 quid to get the right equipment to do the job right!

When I get home I unload the car and let Rupert out and as he's wandering around the garden the clouds start to roll in at a rapid pace of knots, and with them comes the most horrendous wind and torrential rain. I mean I've seen some bad weather in my time, but nothing compares to this. Thunder and lightning right over the house, the electricity cutting off, no satellite signal, enough rain that the whole of the garden is submerged in a good inch of water within seconds and a wind who's aftermath left the garden looking like a hurricane had just whipped through it. The honeysuckle was torn off the fence, the parasol was ripped out of its stand, the solar lights were ripped out of the lawn, even Stanley the gnome got blown over - seriously bad stuff, it's a miracle the damage wasn't worse. And all Rupert and I could do while this carried on for 30 minutes was sit and watch it all unfold from the lounge, though Rupert was pretty insistent that he wanted to go outside so I just had to entertain him until it all blew over - I'm sure the temptation of things flying around the garden was proving too much for his eager little paws.

So what with the stables, shopping and storms it's been a pretty exhausting day - though no doubt not nearly as bad as Phils, since he was trying to do a major release of a bit of software whilst dealing with frequent power cuts.

Posted by Abi at 9:09 PM

July 21, 2006

Researching

Well, for what started out as an ordinary sort of day it quickly developed into me doing lots of research on line and on the telephone.

It all started last night really, when Phil decided that he might like to buy a hornby live steam train to go with his existing set up, and after doing some research on the net he'd found one at 350 quid rather than the usual 500 that was being charged for them. We'd seen the one we wanted on sale many months ago in the train shop in Oxford, but at the time we didn't think it was a purchase we need to make and so skipped the idea. And, of course we didn't think it would still be on sale now and so the Internet one might be a good deal.

However on looking at the delivery charges for the site (we'd want it insured and next day) they were asking for a whopping amount of money which made the sale price not so appealing. So I suggested to Phil that perhaps today I'd ring up the shop where we'd seen the other train for sale and see if it still was, after all, whats the harm in asking?

Today then train hunting was my first task. And luck was on our side since the shop did indeed have the train we wanted on sale, so I made arrangements to have them put it to one side and I told them I'd be in to pick it up tomorrow.

Then, I get talking to one of my friends on messenger and we get around to talking about how we both miss riding horses. As it happens I'd been given a URL by another friend for a website forum for larger riders and had found on there a number of riding schools that would perhaps be happy to allow those of us with a bit more weight to have a lesson or 3 on their larger horses. What with that and the conversation I was having I thought it might be worth ringing a few and see what they had to say.

As you can probably imagine, most of the schools on hearing my weight decided I wasn't suitable for their horses but there was one who was willing to do it, but for only 30 mins and they were 40 odd miles away. I made a note of their details but decided to try a few more schools in my local area, because you just never know, and it paid off. I found a school which were willing to let me ride and so I've arrange to go visit them tomorrow so I can meet them, and they can see me in person to make their own minds up. I'm quite excited as you can imagine, I just hope they don't get the weigh bridge out when the see me coming :)

After all the ringing around and such like I'm late going to the gym, but go still and do the usual things. And then when I get home I decide on doing a bit of baking and make some pear bran muffins (from the ingredients I got yesterday) and also make Phil a slab of brownie to cheer him up since he's got to work at the weekend.

Let me tell ya, it ain't easy making chocolate brownie when it's 30 degrees outside and you don't have any grease proof paper.

Posted by Abi at 9:37 PM

July 20, 2006

Walkies

This infernal heat is still with us causing much discomfort and general unhappiness in our house, though I dare say other people are loving it. It's not as hot as it was yesterday, but it's still an uncomfortable 29 degrees outside with the humidity rising - I know we're in for several uncomfortable nights ahead and I'm oh so glad we've got air conditioning in the bedroom, but even that seems to struggle for a while before it kicks it's arse into action.

Despite the weather and using it as an excuse not to go to the gym I buckled up my shoes and donned my tracksuit and got myself down there... and I'm not going to say "hey, it went great, I could have kept going for ever" because it simply wasn't the case. Every step I took, or weight I lifted or sit up I did took every ounce of my will power. The little voice in my head was in overdrive telling me to quit every moment, so much so I turned the volume up on my headphones to drown the whining blighter out good and proper. So hard work it was, but I managed to do it and saved my own sanity by not giving up on myself.

After I've finished at the gym I then head over to the supermarket as I fancy doing some baking at some point this week. I've seen a nice recipe for some muffins I'd like to try out but as ever I don't have the ingredients required. Of course it's never as easy as just going to get what you need and it all being there. I can't find any wheat bran on the shelves and so opt for wheat germ instead. I've no idea if they are the same sort of thing, but it will have to do since there is a distinct absence of a health food store in our town which probably would stock such an item.

By the time I've shopped and returned home the rest of the afternoon is donated to the "do nothing" charity I've been supporting for some time now, and in the evening both Phil and I take Rupert out for his second walk - a bit further this time and in unfamiliar territory. Funny, he's happy as larry on the route I took him yesterday but as soon as we passed the invisible boundary of the unknown he wasn't so sure of his footing.

Posted by Abi at 10:46 PM

July 19, 2006

Hottest Day

It's all about preparation today since the weather forecasters have predicted that today could be the hottest July day ever in England. In light of this fact I've decided not to go to the gym and instead spend the day at home (well I'm on a rest day anyway) with Rupert to make sure he's ok in the blistering heat.

So much of the day is making sure we both stay cool, but that's a job in itself since the temperatures just kept on rising - at 5 pm it was 35.5 degrees in the shade in our garden and it was unbearable as you can imagine. All Rupert does is remain very still on the kitchen floor and all I do is remain very still on the sofa trying not to exert any kind of energy that might result in me producing more sweat than what is already beading all over me.

I do manage to give Rupert a bit more of a trim around his head and ears, but other than that it's a case of doing very little indeed.

By the evening thunder is rumbling in the sky and the clouds are gathering threatening to produce a down pour or two, but we miss the storm somehow - it does however clear the air a bit and cools the temperature down nicely and as a result Rupert is now super hyper as it's cools enough for him to start playing in the garden. However, even after trying to exhaust him ready for bed for at least an hour he's still going for it and I decide we should perhaps use his energy in a constructive training sort of way, and take him out for his first walk around our estate.

I have to say it went pretty well and he was very good on his harness. It's also good because having him walking on tarmac and concrete will keep his nails in trim. He had a good sniff around and despite a few scaredy cat moments we made it back in one piece and he was quite tired too, so mission accomplished! Now he's done it once I'll start to make his evening walk routine as it seems to be a good way to burn up that excess puppy energy :)

Posted by Abi at 9:41 PM

July 18, 2006

Roasting

Looks like we're in the grip of yet another heat wave today, with temperatures in our garden reaching 33.4 degrees in the shade - it's too hot to do anything of use or interest!

I do go to the gym in the morning, but it's incredibly hard work today for some reason, it took every ounce of my will power to not give up a 1/4 of the way through my routine but I got there in the end. Needless to say the gym was very quiet today, and according to one of the bods who works there even those people who had been in had found it hard work as well, so I'm not alone on that front.

When I get home I sort Rupert out with his lunch and sort myself out too and then flake out on the sofa with the little fella not far behind - and an hour and half later I wake up in a pool of sweat. It's times like these where I wish I was in Greece, at least at the villa there is a pool to jump into when things got too warm! But even though I can't dive into some crystal clear waters (with the exception of the bath perhaps!) Rupert gets to play in some water when I load the watering can up and sprinkle it over him. He loves it, and it also cools him down as we