Quick update

Picking up our new car has been delayed until Monday.. so no photos yet.. but here is a picture of my lovely paperweight!

Its called Manhattan Nights. It reminds me of a holiday in New York, years ago with Douglas, and looks like a fairy castle. I love it!!

A Round Tuit

Well, I keep meaning to get around to writing more blog, but then I forget and time goes by until someone prods me. I’m sorry, I promise to try harder.

Solstice

Well, we had a good Winter Solstice celebration on the 21st December. We had the day off work, and had a sleep in (well, only after I had got up at 6 to feed the cats)

Our gifts to each other were no surprise this year. Douglas and I had been to York on a day trip with his work a few weeks previous, and made me choose me a beautiful paperweight as I collect them on a small scale. I was delighted with his idea and being able to choose something so lovely!

I got an electronic book reader. As many of you will know, hes an avid bookworm, and can chew his way through a normal sized paperback in a couple of hours with no difficulty at all. Due to this, our house is overflowing with books, and despite putting up a lot of new shelves this year, his consumption of reading matter is still a problem!

We did a lot of research into the various devices available and settled on Amazons Kindle. He now carries a small bookshelf worth of books round with him on a device that weighs much less than many of his books, and our bookshelves, although still groaning, are not any fuller. RESULT!! (the other great thing is that many of the “e” books he has purchased are cheaper than the paper versions!

New Year, New Bugs.

As a new years gift, Douglas contracted swine flu. It started off with him feeling generally unwell, having a chest infection then feeling sick. Overnight he rapidly got worse, and found it hard to breathe, so we called the Dangerous Dr Service (err I mean out of hours service) who would said they could not see him for a couple of hours, so they sent an ambulance to take him to hospital instead!!

I followed on in the car, knowing that he would almost certainly be kept in, and I would need transport to get home again.

We got to the hospital at about 11am, Douglas was given a cubicle and a trolley to lie on, and was told it was almost definitely swine flu. He was given a facemask to prevent droplet infection, and eventually a nebuliser to ease his breathing. As the day wore on, the A&E department got more and more busy, patients filling every cubicle, and more lined up in chairs and trolleys in the middle of the corridor. We were in the infectious end.. there were many other people in the same situation as poor Douglas.

At 4pm, I went home, abandoning Douglas to get some food for me and the moggies – all three of us were very hungry! I went back at about 6. He hadn’t been offered any food or water in that time. I sorted both out, left him with a suitcase of stuff and went home again.

At 4am the next morning, Douglas was transferred to an “infectious diseases” ward in a different hospital, where he stayed for the next couple of days. He was given the famous drug “Tamiflu” and was very impressed with its effectiveness!

My parents very kindly acted as taxi and brought him home, for a period of recovery before he was allowed out just in time to celebrate my dads birthday!

New Year, New Car!!

Douglas and I had been thinking about changing our car. We have a Vauxhall Astra at the moment, which is about 8 years old, and enjoys eating our money through petrol, insurance, tax and repairs.

After looking at Which? and other organisations reports about second hand cars, we decided to go for a Honda Jazz. The Jazz is a much smaller car, less CC, but with excellent layout and good storage.

We visited our local Honda outlet, and were soon signing on the dotted line for a lovely two year old Jazz!! We have paid our deposit, and on Saturday we will pay the rest, leave our old car as part exchange… and voilla! Drive away our “new” car!!

Watch this space for a photo.. I will put one up as soon as we get the car.

We are still alive!!

Hi everyone, just to let you know we are ok! - Im at work, doing this in my lunch as we are waiting for our new tv/broadband/phone to be connected hopefully next Monday.

A bit of news..

Douglas was given a new tablet for yet another problem he has ticked off from the new diseases/conditions left in his medical dictionary that he hasnt used yet, and it caused a mighty reaction on one foot, bringing him out in a very nasty itchy and sore rash. Walking was very painful for several weeks.

Im glad to say the rash has now gone (he stopped the tablet that caused it) and hes fine now.

We had a lovely day out in York at the Christmas Market with colleagues from his work. I "drove" Douglas in a wheelchair that we hired from Shopmobility, due to the above. We arrived back at home about 6pm, absolutley exhausted but very happy!

I applied for a new job at work, but didnt get to interview stage.. I need more practice at doing applications the way "they" want them :-)

The cats had their "Cativersary" on the 15th December.. this marks 4 years of their life with us!! They are a gift that keeps giving and giving (as long as we feed them, and tell them how much we love them every day!)

Douglas had a good works lunch out, going to a local pasta place and having steak.. it was a nice surprise and a big treat when a wealthy colleague decided to pay for the lot!!

In the new year Im moving teams at work. Ive done Waste Carriers stuff for three years now, and because I want to be developed (hence the application for a job one step higher than I am now) the Management have decided that they would play musical chairs with some of us. Im moving to the team that deals with all the emails the Environment Agency get.. which can be long and complicated at times!!

Well, happy Solstice/Yule/Xmas/New Year to you all,

I hope to be back online soon to post some photos!

Anna xx

Halloween Weekend Part 4 more photos

Last lot of photos!

The Devil came to dinner.. and he ate vegetable soup!
(Maddys father!)

Marthas friend Maddy apple bobbing

Amy looking angelic

Halloween Weekend Part 3 Extra photos!

These are general photos of the weekend.. each with a little caption below them!

Firstly, this is a photo of Billy with Amy behind him. I think Billy is saying
"What on earth is this monster doing in my bedroom?"
He looks quite alarmed! lol. He dosnt like kids much :-D


This is Martha and her friend Maddy looking Very scary!

Carlo borrowed my mask.. I think he looks great! His eyes look beady black. whohoooo!

Leo just after bobbing for apple peices! I wouldnt like to meet him on a dark night :-)

Halloweeen Weekend Part 2

We arranged with my brother Thomas to hijack his house and have a Halloween party there, with Loony, little Amy and his kids.

We went shopping in the morning and purchased sausage rolls, indian mini bites, crisps, dips, carrots, and a few other party goodies. Earlier that day I made apple crumble to take with us too.

Amy was going as a fairy.. you can see her getting into her lovely little costume here.

By abut 5pm, we were all in our costumes faces painted, raring to go, so we packed all of our goodies (annoyingly we forgot the apple crumbles) and went of to the other side of town.

Amy went as a fairy, Loonie painted her face green, and had a wonderful witches hat, I went in my blue evening dress with a green and brown face, I put my green cape on and my leaf mask when we went out! Douglas did his face with white paint, with blood smeared on (paint again) he had medical "greens" with blood spatters on that looked quite gorey!

We drove down Thomases driveway to be greeted by a very scary zombie in a dinner jacket and bow tie, weilding two blood covered axes!! When we got into the house, the same scary monster was seen trying to kill a pumpkin. I must say he was making a pretty good job of it! lol!

The Zombie (aka Thomas) and the scary fanged Martha Monster

Carlo the Killer (in my green mask!)




Leo the Lurch

Even my mum joined in, by borrowing Loonies hat! I think it suited her very well (No Mother, Im not saying you are a wicked witch.. as you must know by now, most witches are not wicked!! lol)

More photos coming soon!!

Halloween Weekend, Part 1

Our friend Leonie (aka Loonie) and her daughter (very nearly 3 now) came to stay for a long weeekend. Amy is sweet. Shes chatty and funny, and loves to try and do things for herself.

On Friday Douglas wasnt feeling very well during the day, but rallied round in the evening enough for a trip out to a buffet place near us called Flaming Dragon - mainly serving Chinese food, but with Brazillian roast and Teppan Yaki. The Brazillian bit just seems to be various meat done on a BBQ but the Teppan Yaki is great. There are dishes of raw ingredients.. meat, noodles and vegetables. You choose exactly what you want, and its cooked for you as you wait with soya sauce on etc.

We all had a good time.. as the photos below will tell you!

On Saturday, we went up to Walkley for a Give and Take Event that Sheffield Freegle were organising on a little patch of green land. The covenant on it says it shall remain undeveloped as long as there is at least one community event held on it each year, so Sheffield Freegle, Madame Zucchini (an entertainer who makes veg soup!) and a power company, with lots of energy saving info) all had stalls.

All of the volunteers had their photos taken with our trophy from the Sheffield Telegraph Environment Awards, which was great. I took a fishing rod I used to use as a hair scrunchie holder years ago, and took away a brand new lap/cushion tray which was great!

Having said our hellos and goodbyes, Douglas, Loonie, Amy and I headed up to Meadowhell as Loonie wanted some clothes for her little one.

Meadowhell was.. frankly hell. It was incredibly busy. We had borrowed a wheelchair for Loonie, as she has M.E. and gets tired walking very far, and a push chair for Amy.

Amy decided she would walk most of the way, whilst I pushed the pushchair that became a shopping and bag carrier. Douglas had the hard work pushing Loonie who is not thin by any manner of means. Towards the end, Ds job got harder as Amy sat on her mums lap.

We were all glad to get back home. I was exhausted, so fell into bed for a while, and Douglas collapsed on the settee for a bit. I think Loonie had a nap too!

We had a peaceful evening, chatting about plans for the next day. (Sunday blog coming soon)