Brrrrrrrr stormy this weekend!

Hello me lovelies :) hope all my family and friends are all well and happy this week? Happy Australia Day to you all, I see from many of your messages and emails, that most of you had the obligatory BBQ or get together either in Freo or somewhere nice along the water' edge where you can cool off and share a few drinks and share some company with your loved ones and friends. I did my part today in cooking a nice brunch and celebrating Australia Day on my own as my neighbour wasn't well. I wanted to make some good old lamingtons, but my dr wouldn't have aloud that this week! I did have this though, which was a bit of a treat!

Have to tell you it was yummy too, something about the British Bacon that I loveeeeee :) I know I shouldn't be having bacon and eggs, but I have to tell you had lots of mushrooms, used coconut oil, good oil :) grilled the bacon and dry cooked the egg in my great frypan, no carbs in sight! I forgot the toast and vegemite :( but these days I'm trying to leave out the bread as much as I can, the other reason, it doesn't like me, if anyone knows anything about the Paleo diet, I'm seriously thinking of converting! Going to become a cave woman lol go back to the basics :)

It has been a quiet week at work, I just realised that I have only got another nine weeks left at this contract, it is going quickly now. I am clearing and shredding and throwing things around. Climbing ladders, things tumbling down, loud bangs coming from the back room and my work colleagues come running to see if I'm still standing. We had a few IT issues last week, we lost three days work as a result, so this week, we had a bit of a catch up. I had Youth contracts to sort and they are time consuming, so it was nice to get that all sorted :) I have also been scanning everything! Then saving to the hard drive. I haven't heard yet whether the Banes Council is going to need my expertise for another few months, crossing everything at the moment. if you could put some good thoughts about me continuing work for longer, would be really appreciated. :)

Had a little different shopping experience yesterday at Tesco's. Before we were aloud out of the shopping centre we were all made to dance our way to the front door :)

Hehe the things you have to do, to get out of the door, it was actually a clever promotion for Diabetes Type 2, get everyone active, oh and on your way out, please could you drop your money in this bin please! Haha

Speaking of Diabetes, the news is good :) I have been on other medication for a few days and already my blood sugar has halved! The Dr said she was so sorry, as it wasn't really my fault, I should have been given something sooner, my pancreas just wasn't coping :( I was doing everything I should have and exercising everyday, yet my levels remained very high! I want to be able to get to the stage where I don't need the medication, it may be a way off, but it's work in progress. I have to say though, I feel soooooo much better already. I'm not as tired, starting to feel some saliva back in my mouth, yayyyy! The pretentious saliva tastes crap, don't want to have that any more if I can help it. Maybe now I will get rid of all the cold/infections I have recently had which wouldn't go away. As I said it's only been a few days and wow what a difference a day makes, as they say :)

A nice relaxing weekend, after our Tesco's dance experience, we headed out to the car park, OMG it was blowing a GALE and then some. Both Rani and I were trying to put the shopping in my car and at the same time, put the foot around the wheel of the trolley so as to try and keep it from rolling away and crashing into the merc next to me :( with shopping in the car, scarf up around my head to stop the wind whistling through to my ear drums, I couldn't feel the hands, so I throw on the gloves, buttoned up the coat and on a 45 degree angle we bent forward, hunched over, forced our way over to the trolley bay and locked in the trolleys and as we turned around, it practically picked us up as we skipped our way back to the car and lept inside and ahhhhhh we are finally out of that! Well until Rani says, don't forget you need petrol. Need I say after that trolley experience, I was ready to skip the petrol, but I was almost out. I drove around the block to the petrol station and standing out under cover, I seriously thought I would get blown over, the only thing that kept me where I was, was the fact that I was hanging onto the door handle of the car! Haha

Nice sleep in Sunday and actually am feeling a bit healthier and I manage the chores, the washing, clean the kitchen, have a nice chat to some family and friends on the iPad. Not really in a cooking mood today, but I sorted out freezer stuff and see what I need for lunches etc through the week. I'm on a major cut down now, only 10 weeks till I go to Paris and Venice :) I am telling myself, I'm going and I will damn well better have some money saved by then!

I went on my walk today and I thought I would take a few pics, some things that are very Much part of the landscape over here, but not at home:

This is a house which was once a church in the village

 

Ok who know's what these are? Favourite green at Christmas in UK.

Dead centre of the village, I felt quite at home here haha

Only 15 mins down the road, watch out for tractors, mud and horse poo! Yep that's what it's like here in the Somerset countryside.

A beauty all of it's own, even though it's shed it's leaves :)

Seen on many roads and very useful!

This pic wouldn't enlarge for some reason, it's the old Oakland Brewery which is being made into units, which you can see below, wouldn't mind one, but I still love my little unit :)

I'm almost home, on High Street, it's just starting to get dark, better get out my fluro band, so I do t get run over! The little lanes are so tiny, and when the cars come hiking along, they don't see you :(

My little protector :) until I get a jacket for walking.

That's about it for this week beautiful people:) I'm going to go make myself a nice healthy bit of fish or salmon (got it cheap) and some rice and some veg and watch Monarch of the Glen or whatever is on the telly :) relax for the remainder of the night and be nice and refreshed for another week of work.

Going to celebrate Chinese New Year next weekend with the youngens at work, so something to look forward to. So until next blog, love you all xxxxxx

 

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Icy mornings, crisp walks through PSJ and Cosy night in :)

Hello my lovely family and friends, sorry for the little gap this past fortnight :( had a bit of a set back with a horrid cold for the past month which I seemed to have got after Cate and Simon left after Christmas. I thought it was getting better around New Year, but I think going out in the cold night air, kind of added to making things worse :( with asthma added to the mix, it has been a trying few weeks, but I'm determined not to let my health spoil my journey :)

Brushing all that aside, I have been back at work and soldiering on! My job of getting everything sorted and shipshape by the end of March has started, I have spent a great deal of time rearranging the storeroom and finding all sorts of items in the store room that I wonder what I will do with, I have the list already that my colleague already had done for me, what gets sold, what goes to staff and what goes to skip? Emptying rubbish out of containers, ready to give to each member of staff. They are all getting a box to put their gear in and then I am going to come along and throw out what is not boxed (Alana - the rubbish nazi!) and what is not needed or too old! In the midst of cancelling contracts in the next two months, as well as do my normal job, it will all be time consuming I'm sure! I am possibly being kept on another few months, for the change over, when the company is taken over by the Council.

I'm hoping I get a few more months work, after the changeover. But I'm also planning my holiday when I finish end of March, to go to Venice via Paris. So maybe I will lose some weight from now until then lol as I will have to cut out my food bill, to be able to save any money to go! Venice is quite expensive, I'm doing the research now to see what I can get for a good price :) so any suggestions would be greatly accepted. Can't wait to see Venice and practice a bit of Italian, or maybe I just want to sit in a Gondolla and watch one of those cute men with the tight pants and open shirts and scarf tied around the neck and little hat take me on a little trip somewhere, mmm already dreaming of where that might lead to :) one can only dream! I'm going with my friend and Neighbour, so I think we will have a great time, lots of people watching, being in the fresh markets, buying lots of fresh fruit, sitting outdoors, sipping on wine and watching the rest of the world go by.

Something new I have been up to two weeks ago, with my work colleague Lizzie whom I sit next to :) we went along to a Lindy Hop Dance Class which was a load of fun, I might tell you that we had to walk a long way to get to the Scout hall in Bath and it was a rainy night, but fortunately stopped whilst we were walking there :) I wasn't too bad for and old chick, and for the fact that I still had my cold, a quick puff of my puffer before we started and I was good to go! I had a few guys say to me, you've done this before, no says I :) I guess it was very similar to a ballroom type jive, yet the beat and timing seemed a little slower. The teacher is a very active, middle aged guy and his wife, boy they can move, can't wait to see them do a demo :). I missed this tues, as Lizzie wasn't going and my knee was killing me, so it might be another week or so before we go, but it will be fun to get back to. I want to go to Argentine Tango and there is a Ballroom place too, but my finances don't really cover that little luxury at the moment, I want to travel first, that is why I have come over after all.

We celebrated Cheryl's 40th birthday at work last week, so I had to take a pic :)

She got out of wearing the jesters hat, lol that we all normally wear on birthdays. Cheryl had a great week of celebrations for her birthday and her fellow workmates got to sample all her leftover goodies from the week long parties. All except me of course, who's blood sugar is already through the roof!

This week the walking group (Lizzie, Ali or Louise and I) have spent our lunch time going for a nice walk through and around Peasedown St John, while we have had quite crispy days, most days have been nice and clear this week, so we managed a good 30 or 40 min workout most days. We would pick the flat walk one day, the hills the next, I can't do the hills every day. Not a pretty sight, me gasping for my breath, having an asthma attack going up the hills, they are mean bloody hills! You can't say I'm not getting my thirty minutes a day, even walk up to the post office daily, so that's another little work out :) I'll have to start wearing my hat soon, it is getting a bit chilly some days. The days have been quite short, it's dark going to work at ten to eight and it's dark at 4.30/5.

January weather has well and truly set in, we have several areas of Somerset flooded and the rain still keeps coming. At the moment, my track to work is still dry enough and I don't have to plough through flood waters. I do however have to get out to my car about 15 mins earlier on frosty mornings as I can't get into my car! I This morning I made the big mistake of not having my gloves on, whilst I was spraying de-icer on the windows while trying to start the car, it stalled three or four times :( finally it kept it's rev's ) after spraying I then had to wipe all the windows down, suddenly I couldn't feel my fingers :( I can hear my boss saying to me, "that's not a real frost yet" god I don't know what is, think it must have been -1 or less this morning by the amount of ice on the edge of the road and walkways. I'm petrified of hitting the "black ice" you can see the roads are slippery and wet, what you can't see, is if they have ice on them :(

Well snow is not far away, I'm so annoyed, apparently it snowed a little in Wells on Saturday, I was going to go there too! I still had a great weekend though, went to a new Holistic Centre and checked it out :) with my neighbour, it was such a nice place :) they do beauty, nails, reflexology, massage and Reiki, my friend actually got herself a job there, so after much excitement, we decided to go and celebrate and had lunch at Goodfellows, a nice glass of wine with our meal, Caesar chicken salad a pond a cake :) then it was off to Aldi to do weekly shopping, blinkers on Alana!

I don't know if anyone saw this last fortnight, my pics of my little deer? I had a frantic call from my neighbour on the weekend, quick, quick, the deer is at your front door and in your garden! I rush off the phone, grab my camera and rushed to my loungeroom winter and sure enough there he was munching away at my garden. I finally have worked out, who has been spreading wood chips all over my bath! gotcha! Caught you in the act little deer :)

Chomp, chomp, chomp ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I got a bit snap happy taking pics of my little deer, but it's not every day you have a deer in your own garden!

Well my lovelies, that's about the extent to my exciting fortnight (not much I know!) this weekend looking forward to going out, Chinese New Year Celebrations, so until my next post, have a wonderful week everyone xxxxxx love to you all xxxxxxoxoxoox

 

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Out with the old and in with the new!

Hello to all my beautiful family and friends and Happy New Year to one and all :) it has been a good start to the new year so far. I often get excited with the new energy that comes with a new year and I suppose like so many others, it makes me start thinking of what I want to achieve for the next coming year and then some. I can see why so many people have New Year's resolutions, to move house, move jobs, lose weight or to change something about their lives in someway. It's a time of Goal setting, making new plans for the future and to reflect on the year that was. I guess this time last year I had made the life changing decision to uproot myself and make the very big decision of leaving my job that I had been doing for seven years, leaving my darling Dad on his own, knowing that I may not see him again, leaving all my beautiful friends that I love so dearly. Thinking at first, just wait until that celebration has happened, or that person's birthday, it was then that I realised, if I don't go soon, this opportunity may not happen. My kids have been so supportive, if it hadn't been for my son Robert saying Mum, just go! You know how much you love to travel and he said, look how quickly the time went with Helen being away for two years. So with all their encouragement and the fact that everything else just fell into place, I knew that the decision had already been set, I had already set that goal in motion hope that my family and friends could understand that.moving to the UK was what I had to do :)

So reflecting upon last year's goals, it now brings me to what lies ahead for me this year? Having been in the UK for six months I look forward to many new adventures, travelling to Paris, Venice in the immediate future, well when I finish up at my contract job at the end of March. Also this year I would like to make it up to Scotland and over to Ireland. I now need to manifest abundance to achieve all desired dreams :) I have Family and friends coming over also this year, so really excited about that, I am putting out there for a better bed for my guests :)

I hope you have all had a wonderful new year and made plans for the up and coming year.

New Year's Eve made plans to go into Wells with Rani, could have easily stayed home, the weather was horrid! We braved the rain and the wind and the Brolley's turning themselves inside out! Fortunately we got a park near the Cathedral and didn't have too far to walk to the Crown (which is probably one of the main local pubs) we get inside and it's all a buzz of people of all ages, people sitting at tables, some wearing fancy dress, other's just wearing a hat or bright colours, something interesting to bring in the new year. A quick glance around, no tables left :( so we decide to stand at the bar, god I haven't done that in the while, not since I worked on the other side of one lol we shared a drink, amused ourselves by doing a little people watching for a while. There was a lovely atmosphere in the Crown, we see a group vacate a table and we make a run for the table, at last we can rest our now aching legs! We continue to chat and drink and listen to the subtle background music playing. Until.... A crowd of youngens come in near our table and start singing and squeeling and talking very loudly. I looked around and see most people in the bar area were trying to avoid there noise and plugging up one ear whilst trying to converse with the other ear. A table to our right couldn't stand the noise, so they moved over to our left and on to the end of our table to try and get a bit further away from all the noise! That was the start of a really great night. They were siblings that had come from Newbury, two brothers and a sister and her boyfriend.i have trouble remembering all their names, but I do remember Derek and Julie I think who sat closest to us :) they were a really lovely family and we found out that every new year they make atrip to somewhere new together to bring in the new year, as they don't like to stay home. One year they went to Edingburgh and another year they went to Munich and they had also been to Adelaide as well to visit some family. We all got on quite well and celebrated the new year together :)

Julie and her boyfriend and her brother John? far right Derek

We went outside at the stroke of Twelve and had some fireworks in gentle rain, they still seemed exciting, we all hugged and kissed each other :)

Derek and Rani laughing as they couldn't see, due to the flash!

Ahh that's better! No flash:) Derek and Moi

Well just watching the news before heading to bed, it looks like we might be under water tomorrow :( might not make it to work. It will ease over the next few days hopefully.

I'm off to bed now beautiful people, start of a new week and back to five days, so better get my beauty sleep, till next post, love to you all xxxxxxx

 

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