HOLIDAY!!!!

Before you all get excited I'm not actually departing Dark Corner for anywhere else.  We are staying at home and having some days out.  Today we went to Brighton & Hove (both bits).  A parked in Hove and we walked along the very nice promenade to Brighton.  Hove seems genteel and really unspoilt by the tourist tat, preferring to save that accolade for its sister town Brighton.  We found a nice little cafe in Brighton, The Bucket, where they make their burgers by hand from scratch.  A bit of a wait but well worth it for the taste.  The weather was very 'Mediterranean' with lots of sun and a blue sea, which looked very inviting. 

We then mooched around the shops for a while.  I managed to get A into an Ann Summers shop but we only looked at the lingerie.  Nothing really took our fancy.  Some of the phone shops have some appealing offers in right now.  We might investigate those this week.

On the way back we followed the A259 and passed through Worthing.  It also looks like somewhere we might like to visit for the day.  There was an interesting-looking restaurant that served Chinese, Japanese, Singapore, Malay, Thai, Indian & Italian cuisine.  That just about covers our family's culinary desires, so we will definitely give it a try.  I'll let you know the name and a review afterwards.

Later this week we intend to go over the the island (Isle of Wight) for another day trip.  In between all this galavanting around we will be doing more mundane things like finishing up in the garden (spray painting the shed and the rest of the fencing, moving a couple of bushes, taking out some ivy that is encroaching, reminding the clematis and the jasmine that it grows in THIS garden and not over the wall by the footpath, etc), making a start on getting rid of the carpet moths (not nice as they loosen the pile in your carpets, leaving bare patches - their favourite places are in the dark and rarely disturbed), and de-cluttering the study (just how many old PC towers can a man need?)

K & I will continue to fit in 3 visits to Curves each week.  Our exploits there can be followed at another one of my blogs.

Been a bit busy

Partying, that is!  The weekend saw a birthday here in Dark Corner so I saw it as my duty to give my liver a good workout.  It has now forgiven me.  A bought me a Bon Jovi DVD.  The jury is out as to whether I am in heaven or not.  The lip synch seemed a bit out in places, some of the instruments hit the odd wrong note, and Jon sounded more out of tune than in.  All in all, not the best DVD of theirs I own, and I own plenty.  We did wonder if it was recorded at the end of the tour (Madison Square Gardens 2008) and if they were all tour weary.  However, I did my best to make it rain, yodelling along to the tracks and thoroughly annoying the rest of the household.

Last week, friends of ours left to go home to the US (waves madly at Ann).  Hopefully they will soon find a house and life settles down again.  They'll be missed.

D goes on camp next weekend for a week.  Unfortunately K chose not to so we parents won't get as much peace as we deserve.  We are having the week off and will be alternating between de-cluttering the house and doing day trips.  We might head to the island for a day.

My parents came down for the weekend.  I now have a tidy back garden - thanks, folks.  I need to go and buy a job lot of slug pellets and growmore, as well as a bucket of long-acting weed killer for the patio and drive.

On the job front, my official finishing date is the end of August but, as per usual here, I may be needed a bit longer.  I'm not bothered either way but it'd be nice to have something concrete.  Oh the joys of being a temp!  I've applied for a few jobs but not heard anything back.

Roll on tomorrow.  No work for 2 weeks.  My job share fellow temp wanted to swap some days with me so I am working Monday - Wednesday this week.  Then I'm off next week before returning to my normal Wednesday - Friday the following week, so for 3 days off work I end up with 1 day short of two weeks not working.  Excellent!!!!!

The perennial question

It's heading towards that time of year again and A, being the caring, thoughtful husband that he is, has asked me what I want for my birthday.  As usual there are two sets of answers to this.  One runs to 'ha ha, stop kidding around' things like finish revampin en-suite, a new kitchen, a 'no snoring ever again' medication so we can share a bed every night (ok, so this isn't kidding around but no-one has invented one yet), my very own Ferrari 360 F1 Modena (with flappy paddle gear box), or a sprawling house in the country with acres of land between me and my next door neighbours ('cos I'm the sociable sort, you know).  The other usually goes something like 'dunno, nothing's really took my fancy'.  This is not strictly true as there's always ONE thing that takes my fancy  ;-) but why wait till my birthday  hehehehe.

I'm after a new camera BUT as I know absolutely nothing about digital SLRs I am going to make a nuisance of myself at the camera club in September and see if the some of the boys will let me play with their toys.  The new camera will have to wait till next year some time.  It would be a VERY expensive mistake to get the wrong one.  (We are talking £500+ here so I need to be very sure I'm getting the best one for me).

So, I've settled for a serious session at a hairdressing salon.  The goody bag that I brought home from the Ball on Saturday had a 20% off voucher for somewhere that charges silly money (to me who would make Scrooge look profligate with money for things like clothes or hair) to do even the simplest of things.  I want a new style and some streaks of colour putting in.  Just the sort of thing to make me feel summery and cheerful.  It has to be low-maintenance as I don't have the time or the inclination to spend more than 10 minutes each day making it look presentable.  It would also have to look good whether I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt or formal business wear.  Picky, picky, picky.

I've already shown the kids what I want and, between them, it comes in under budget.  Let's hope they remember.

That's my fix for a while

What a night!!!!!!  Absolutely fantastic!!!!! 

If you ever get the opportunity to see The Bon Jovi Experience you should. Two hours of hits and it cost us a tenner each.  Be warned though, it's very loud.  We both have varying degrees of deafness today.

The lead singer has more than a passing resemblance to the real thing.  Scary, huh?!

The rest of the band, really not so much like their counterparts.

Ooh I'm so excited!!!!

Hubby and I are going out on Saturday night.  We're going to see Bon Jovi on the cheap.  Bearing in mind Jon and the boys are coming to the O2 arena in June and the tickets are £45 - £200+, the £10 each we're paying for Saturday's gig in a little club in Southampton is better value by far.  Of course we're not actually seeing Bon Jovi themselves (boo, hiss) but we ARE seeing a decent tribute band.  Decent enough that Jon Bon Jovi has sung with them.  Click on the link and go to the audio/video link.

Can't wait.

ps  D is recovering nicely.  The black eye is almost gone.  However out dentist is on holiday this week so that's all on hold till Monday 15th.

My unlucky streak continues

Today we went on a picnic to a local woodland with some friends. D drove us there and all was good. Then less than 100 feet away from the car park I decided to step on a piece of branch and roll my ankle over. I don't think it's anything serious - it certainly didn't stop us staying in the woods till 5pm. However, it now aches a bit and bruises seem to be appearing in various bits of my ankle/foot where it doesn't hurt!

Anyone have an isolated cocoon I can hire for a month?

Race for Life

This was on Sunday 13th. K, friend A, and I all finished within 5 minutes of each other. A & I were pleased for K, but kind of put out that we had been doing all the training and K hadn't - yet she almost kept up with us. Gonna have to train harder now.

One of life's lessons

My two have been to the beach today with a couple of friends. One of the friends parents did taxi duties, otherwise the kids were left to their own devices for the day. They took towels, sun cream and a packed lunch.

Apparently they all had a great time. Mine now have a better idea of how much sun cream is enough and that they should re-apply it every 2 - 3 hours. My after-sun supplies are taking a heavy hit.

Me?! Laugh?! As if.

What we did on our holiday - part 2

Before we discovered the aforementioned urban jungle we spent the day at Skegness, taking MIL with us for a day out (MIL and FIL are not together). It was a lovely day and, once again, my kids proved why whisking them off somewhere exotic is a waste of time. All they want is a sandy beach, then they create their own fun.

This was taken at just after 4.30, and it was still pleasant. MIL and I were sat out of that bracing breeze that Skeg is famous for. A pity we didn't take the kites really.

We also got D on a rollercoaster. He's worse than me for not wanting to get on one so we were somewhat shocked when he agreed. A had only asked him in fun.

We bought the kids wristbands for the funfair and they certainly had their money's worth out of them. The dodgems were the favourite. I think each child notched up at least a dozen drives.

Foods is also cheap in Skegness. A double-coned whippy ice cream with a flake cost £1. Five hot meals and drinks came to under £25. All of these were bought right next to the beach.

All in all a good day. The kids are already planning next year's East Coast invasion.

Fit to drop

Yesterday I got the Wii Fit. I brought it home, along with 2 friends. Surprise, surprise, A chose to finish work at lunchtime - well it was Friday! - so the queue of people waiting to use the Wii board and show off their fitness (or lack thereof) was quite big. I'm not going to embarrass anyone by detailing their BMI or prowess but the audience was usually in hysterics.

During all this our osteopath friend arrived to give K & I a cranial session each. We then convinced her to have a go or three. There were a few aches later.

Today K & I had another 20 minutes each on it. That flipping Step Aerobic bit is HARD! Either that or I am just not co-ordinated. However I am the best skiier by over a second. My only gripe so far is that the beginners press-ups section also has side lifts. I can't do press-ups so I was hoping it would start with half press-ups, where you kneel on all fours and lower your top half to the ground. This wasn't the case so I scored a big fat zero on that section and got a slight wrist-slap from my virtual personal instructor.

At £65 it is cheaper and more fun than the gym. We have been swapping Wii codes with our friends so we can track each others progress/record point scores. I foresee a lot of healthy competition coming up.

He's back!

D is home and back on dry land again. Unfortunately he's left his balance and vertical hold back onboard. He'd stumbling round the house like a toddler learning to walk. Hopefully it'll be gone by tomorrow.

He had a GREAT time! By the time we got home (25 minutes, thanks to a small delay for traffic) my ears were crying out for silence. I learned that he and another teen had made vegetarian curry for 18 people on Monday evening. He enjoyed cleaning the head (toilet to us landlubbers). He knows quite a bit about sails - names, which mast they go on, what different bits of the sail are called - and can haul on the ropes to raise or lower them. He's steered the boat, navigated it, cleaned it, done all sorts. In fact, the only thing he didn't do was get time to be bored!

He passed his RYA Beginners Certificate and can't wait to go again to work on his Competent Crewman Certificate. Sounds like a really expensive hobby in the making. EEK!

I gave K a scare whilst we were fetching D. Some of the other teens wanted his e-mail address and, of course, I had to give it to them because he couldn't remember it exactly. I had my feet on the pontoon and leant across a couple of feet of water to lean my elbows on the side of the boat. K did NOT approve - at all! She was panicking about me slipping and falling in - no chance, I was hanging on far too well. When I stood back up again she grabbed me and told me off for being irresponsible and then wouldn't let go till I promised to behave.

I must be mad

During today's jaunt with my friends Ann mentioned that she is raising a team to do the Great South Run in October. This is to raise funds for her youngest child's school. It's a special school, and it has just had all it's outdoor play equipment condemned.

The Great South Run is 10 miles! I can't even run 10 feet without puffing. This is going to be interesting. I'll be touting for sponsorship nearer the time. My first 'race' will probably be The Race for Life in July - a mere 5km.roughly 3 miles. Look on the bright side, I now have the necessary motivation to get fit, and as K has also said she wants to do both events she will get fit too.

All I need are some volunteers to have oxygen/alcohol waiting for me at the finish line. Wonder who I can pressgang into that?

Spreading his wings part 2

D is going away for a few days tomorrow - ON A BOAT. He's going to learn how to sail, along with 11 other young people, on a boat run by the Ocean Youth Trust http://www.oytsouth.org/

I will be handing him over at 2pm tomorrow and collecting him at 12pm on Thursday. The sailing forecast seems to be fairly gentle so seasickness shouldn't be a problem. They also have RYA handbooks with details of all the awards that are available and what you have to do to earn them. The OYT staff sign each bit as you achieve it and if you get all the relevant bits signed you get a certificate.

Hopefully his teamwork skills will improve and he will achieve some of the stuff in the beginners section. D is looking forward to it. All I have left to buy are some thick socks to pad out his wellies.

Yes, I know he will miss 4 days of 'school' but what he will learn onboard will serve him better in the long run.

I've been tagged

My friend B (see Blogs I Like, as I haven't worked out how to make words into links yet) has tagged me. The rules are as follows:

1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules.
3) Share six non-important things / habits / quirks about yourself.
4) Tag at least three people.
5) Be sure the people you tagged KNOW you tagged them by commenting what you did.


Six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself (Only 6?!)

1. I have to use the same coloured pegs on one garment. This is not as bad as my Mum who makes sure her pegs are a contrasting colour to whatever she is hanging out.

2. I bite my nails.

3. I used to make my own wine, and if the taxes on it keep going up I might have to start again.

4. I love maths, and am plodding through a maths degree with OU.

5. I'm good at putting my foot in it. (This might qualify as important).

6. I don't like big or frequent social occasions.

Now I have to find 3 more victims, I mean friends, to tag. And the lucky winners are Deb, Sue, and Hannah.