contrasting weekends

21 september
im so rubbish at keeping a blog, must try harder.
Last weekend was a nightmare, I went to visit victoria, told her she shouldnt be living in my house etc,
all because it would have been our 20th wedding anniversary the previous week, and i had planned a nice night out but all 3 friends called off at the last minute, so i didnt cope very well.

i managed to pull myself together for monday, back at work, and for tuesday when I went on a first date with Paul, we walked in the rain and then had a few drinks at the sportsman inn.

anyway, this weekend is much better, I was supposed to be meeting welsh paul in chester, we haven't met for 40 years!! but he has an appointment to view a flat in aber, so had to cancel. I decided to travel over to cheshire on friday night, which was fine except my packing was rushed.

Millie poohed in the lounge and then weed in the kitchen. thats the first time she has done anything like that, i hope she's ok. poor cari had to clear it all up. mim is dogsitting for me tonight, i hope millie behaves herself for her.

Anne and I made chutney this morning, green bean, green tomato and green courgette chutney. it looks fine, I hope it tastes ok. then anne and I went to a fungus foray in marbury park, but the guy running it said he wouldn't tell us which were edible, so we left them to it and went blackberrying, and picked some apples. then i bought some big garden pots and two fruit trees from the nursery there, a williams pear and a verte plum
we're off to the pictures this afternoon.

uncle was 90 in the summer, i suppose i could have sent him a birthday card, but didn't think, and no-one told me it was a BIG birthday, that makes me sad.

Don't shout at me!

27 august I've been to b n q, assembled a double bed, cleared a room for tenant, now lunch :)

28 august

Omg, the morning from hell, 

Plumber arrived earlier than arranged, so got the tenant up to let him in :( 

I went to the local plumbers merchants to buy silver stuff to fit behind the radiators before they are refitted, men ignored me for ages, then they didn't sell the bloody stuff!

Walked to collect my car from donnas, the car park was full of big vans, as one of the neighbours is having his house water blasted, throwing dust and grit all of my car in the process, the neighbour stands behind my car as I reversing giving me useless hand signals and generally getting in my way, so I ask him to move and leave to do it myself, he then gives me verbals about it being a private car park ( it's council) and asking me where I live!

So I say to council man who is just outside the gate, this is a council car park isn't it? Not on my plan he says! Urgh.

Then I go to B n Q, buy silver stuff, but its not self adhesive, so try and find that also.

Then as I'm driving home, a van driver (lime green, the van, not the man) shouts 'fucking blind bitch' at me, when he was going to fast, and I had stopped!

I have reported him to the police. 

Anyway, 1030 now, I'm having a coffee break :)

The joys.....

a bit of decorating, at long last...

Peter, the new tenant arrived, plumber let him, he could have been anyone! Slightly miffed about that. I found the garage key, which is lucky since he has far too much stuff, anyway he seems happy enough.

Had a rant on Facebook, about my shit day, and got invited to the pub! Spent the evening laughing, good therapy.
 Then got a message from Paul when I got home, he is living in aber again, we have said we'll meet up soon, he says he's shy, but I don't remember him being shy.

29 August
 Cari moaned at me for not inviting her to the pub last night, she wants to meet di and dan and monty. Lots of her friends were there, not sure if she knew, or would have gone if she had known.

Hair cut and colour this morning, Kate and I like to put the world to rights.

Message from sis saying they aren't coming to caris party. And mum isn't well enough to travel, I'm pissed off with them all. Tim and zebra are coming, so that's good.

   

So here's the thing, when I moved out, I took the Eos300D camera. It had a double battery pack on it, which is great if you want lots of battery, not so good if you want a lighter weight/ smaller camera.

The original battery slot cover can't be found, I've tried 3 times so far, this is the latest attempt. The advert said Eos 20 and 30, which I took to mean 300d, but its the wrong shape. All I have to do now is turn it, get my money back, search and pay for another one.... And so on.

cari is at shambala, it's bank holiday weekend, my essay is finished, but only yesterday so I haven't made any plans for the weekend, feel a bit panicky, but I'm inviting friends to all sorts of activities in the hope that  someone will be free.

Also trying to sort out tenants for joes house, Peter is taking joes room for 6 weeks, he's odd, but I have a reference and he's paying up front, so I think it'll be ok. Major issue is that I don't know where the garage keys are, I though chris had them, but he says not.
Also realised today that joes stash of alcohol is back in his room, I though chris had removed it until joe was back, I'm just checking this with him.

I might get some decorating done over the next few days, the weather is forecast to be rainy, so I might not be wanting to rush out anyway.

Gay and Karen and I are walking up to the 3merry lads to sample the beers in the beer festival tomorrow night, that should be fun!

Essay writing

I started writing at 9am, had a few breaks and finished at 8.30. My bottom is sore from sitting still all day, urgh.

During the breaks I sorted and emailed a set of photos of Steve carrying his camera in various places, one photo isn't enough evidence for the insolvency office apparently. The photos also show the 3 computer monitors he has, and an x-box controller, but I don't suppose they'll take any notice of that.
I also told Peter he can rent the room for 6 weeks. I really hope I'm not making s mistake with this one. He's a bit weird, he is spending £1000 stringing his piano, he thinks he can work in a local school, but he seems OCD to me, he also said he wants to live in crookes because it is nick cleggs constituency. But on the plus side he is willing to pay all the rent up front.
Dog walking at the usual time, all the usual suspects, I took my cup of tea, that always makes them laugh.
Cari arrived home from greenman festival yesterday, she ate, talked a little bit then went to bed, today she put her washing in, she hasn't hung it up yet, and I'm not doing it for her, I'm too busy with my essay, oh yes and writing my blog, lol. She walked Millie, then went out for tea. But she has offered to send me some photos of her with glitter on her face, so I'm happy about that.
Joe had to have a lift home on work today, because of the typhoon. He should get his lump of cheese soon, I wonder what state it'll be in. He should also get his international driving permit, I wonder whether he'll really need it. But I hope. He'll appreciate it anyway.
The boundary solicitor came round yesterday,  he seems to think the fence is in the wrong place from looking st the plan and the fence itself.  He suggested I ask nationwide if the house insurance will cover the legal costs, I didn't get round to doing it, yet. I think I should live it until the essay is finished, but its nice to do useful things when I get board of going round and round in circles.

so today when I should have been writing my essay, I went for a walk with Ines, Alex, Millie and Flo. We did the home to grindleford walk in glorious sunshine :)

a few things spoilt the day slightly, Flo herded some sheep :( Alex was stung by a bee (but was very brave) and then when we reached the cafe, it was shutting, no bacon butty for Alex, we only just managed to squeeze a cup of tea each out of the grumpy cafe worker, who tried to make us feel guilty for actually wanting some food after a long walk....

Tonight I'm off out to an art exhibition opening at Tigerworks, part of KIAC (kelham island art centre).

I have managed to write a few paragraphs of the essay, but tomorrow is going to have to be a major writing day...

Results day

Cari got A in geology, B in Biology and Chemistry and C in English. I think she was hoping for another A, she is going to resit a module in chemistry.
then she went off to greenman with Huw, suze and hannah. I'll try not to contact her now, but its tempting. I was with her last year, and after 2 days she needed a good meal, a shower and a bit of downtime. she says she can manage this year. I'm so proud of her.
Meanwhile, Joe is still in Japan, he's about 1/2 way through his stay. someone has commented on the hotel review that a tall foreigner made their stay very happy - he's sure its him!!
I finally got all the bits of paper together for his international driving permit, and sent it off. I walked down to the post office with Millie. then I walked home. then I found the photos which should have gone with the application form, on the sofa. so i walked, a bit faster, with Millie, down to the post office, where the postmaster searched amongst the letters to find mine, I opened it, stuffed in the photos and resealed, and reposted. fingers crossed.
I saw the dog walkers, not seen them for ages, two of them seperately said 'i though you'd left the country!' i said 'i did, Wales'. it was only marginally awkward with alsation John. I then rushed away to be home for Andy the plumber at 6pm, who hasn't turned up, what is it with plumbers!!

spent an hour on the essay today :( should have been more, I'll try again now.

Back to the essay

Wednesday 14 August  - we arrived back home, Cari unpacked and repacked ready for Greenman festival.
she has results to collect in the morning, so she doesn't want to be fussing with her packing then.

I sent the draft to Julie, my tutor, she said it needs more structure, i thought I had cracked the structure this time, ho hum.

brecon

day 1 saturday - drove to see mum, wondered if she would invite us to stay, but it was clear she was stressed by millie being there, so we didn't stay too long, then drove up to LLangorse, where we ended up staying in Judy and Ken's caravan. I went out to the jazz festival with Jayne, Eve, brian and john. saw a good band with a great young guitarist called Dave.

day 2 - sunday - mooching and walking near the lake, then spent the afternoon at the jazz, neither cari nor I were particularly enthralled. cousins bought us tea at the landsdowne, it was fab.

day 3 - Monday -  Mynydd Troed - the hill my mum and her sisters used to climb to pick bilberries. there are still plenty to pick, all I managed to do was smear them on the seat of my pants!! Cari, Millie and I drove to cockit, parked up and then went up the short way and down the long way :)

Millie in the mud on Mynydd troed

Day 4Tuesday  Pen Y Fan

chasing sticks near the waterfall, base of pen y fan.

on the way up Pen Y Fan

looking back towards pontcystill reservoir

Top of Pen Y Fan, looking towards Cribyn, which we didn't climb.