Well...

...I appear to have neglected this blog, been doing other stuff....

Not sure if I can keep up with this...perhaps a post a month or something as I'd hate to let this die completely after all this time.

Anyway, Happy Christmas, eat, drink and be merry!

Ho ho ho and all that!

Happy Bloggerversary to Me!

Never thought this blog would still be around here but here it still is!

Struggle to keep it updated all the time but reluctant to let it go completely - let's see how things go.

Here's to another 10 years, lol!

Btw, I nicked the above graphic from Charby.

Yes but No but...

The people of Scotland have voted against independence. What a great day for democracy - let's move on and build a greater UK!

Not posted due to a hectic summer but I hope to do an update at some point!

Happy Easter

100 Happy Days - Day 60: A lovely sunny Good Friday. I was even inspired to hoover the inside of my car!

100 Happy Days - Day 61: First flowering of my tulips - the squirrel didn't manage to dig all of them out!

No Fools

100 Happy Days - Day 43:  Four of my friends celebrated their birthdays today - happy birthday all!

Grill and Goals

On Friday, it was my friend and colleague JR's last day on our team. After nearly 15 years, she is moving onwards and upwards into another role in another department. I wish her all the very best but shall really miss working with her. Am glad that she's still at the same company so I can still catch up with her.

For a little leaving do, we went to The Hale Grill where I had an excellent steak and even had room to squeeze in a dessert. So this is my 100 Happy Days - Day 11, celebrating JR's new job with some great food!

For 100 Happy Days - Day 12,  today's win over Southampton (first time in 11 years) takes Liverpool to 2nd in the league...dare I start dreaming just yet!? 

Well that was 2013

Blog-wise, I was exceedingly rubbish with this blog - my resolution for 2014 will be to fill in a few gaps from 2013 and make at least one post a month - that's not too much to ask of myself.

Not a great year, but neither can I say it was a bad year - I'd say it was mostly a happy one, though not very eventful.

Need to sort out the book thing that I usually do. Maybe later, depending on how many beers I've had!

Any resolutions?

Go to the gym on Sunday every other week (or two Sundays a month) - will be trying to keep that one as long as possible.

Happy new year all - may it be a healthy and wealthy one! x

June Round Up

Gosh, the past few weeks have been a real blur.

Witnessed England getting dumped out of the Euro competition by the usual penalty shoot-out, celebrated a birthday (yes another year older dammit!) with the usual outing with the girls but also a meal out (yes really) with Boom. Also got to hold an Olympic Torch (guy at work was a torch-bearer and brought it in, and yes, that's my arm!) - it was pretty heavy!

Also, my parents are visiting for the first time in two years - aha, now I know why it's all been a blur lately..I've been too busy TIDYING UP! Anyway, must have done an ok job as my mum mentioned it to my sisters!

What else have I done this month? Decided that I'm going to buy a new car (I had a plan two months ago when I only renewed my Tax Disc for 6 months) and was speccing out and pricing up VW Polos but that's not what I've gone for in the end.

I'll post again when the car arrives...

Tickets!

My Olympic tickets have arrived!

2012 is a time to be a little more patriotic than usual - the Queen's 60th Jubilee (Gawd bless her and thanks for the extra day off work!), England in the Euro 2012 (underdogs and hopefully not the underachievers everyone is expecting) and then Team GB in the Olympics!

Looking forward to it all!

Ow

Ok, get the sport out of the way first - no winners on the Grand National this weekend - my horse Seabass came third, so I ended up winning some but no profit.

An excellent FA Cup Semi Final between the Scousers, with the Reds triumphant in the end - even Andy Carroll scored! :-)

Out with the girls for the April girls' birthdays - met up in Kro Bar for a couple, watched the National then onto 101 Brasserie for some good food.

At some point, ended up in the Old Nag's Head to listen to people on the karaoke (didn't try ourselves).

Good night, lots of drink.

Woke up the next morning, having forgotten that I'd made myself noodles before I went to bed, had bruises on my legs and had some pain to the left of my chest, next to my lung.

Pain didn't go away, really struggled to get out of bed, so I went to the docs on Monday - I appear to have pulled a muscle next to my lung but how? Maybe from the gym and then worsened from sneezing, coughing or probably laughing on Saturday!

But ow...it really hurts, even when breathing!

Enter The Dragon

Kung Hei Fat Choy! Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!

Called the family and had a good chat to all who were celebrating in HK. Me? Well, I cooked something Chinese for me and Boom for tea at the weekend - that was the extent of my celebrations!

The Dragon is my opposite sign so this is supposed to be lucky. How lucky depends on me so I hope I make the most of this year.  A big lotto win wouldn't go amiss haha!

2012 has started at a relentless pace, especially at work but with the economic outlook heading towards a double-dip, I have to be grateful I guess that I'm working and that I'm busy.

Am paying more into my pension (not my choice), things are not getting cheaper so I'll need to be less frivolous this year. Time for some supermarket budgeting and perhaps cutting back on the alcohol...maybe!

12 Weeks

I have got all sorts to post about (yes, happy stuff too even!) but have been pretty tied up.

But finally, after twelve loooong weeks (from the day I put in the offer to completion), I've now purchased a little apartment that's going to be a cornerstone for my retirement, seeing as pensions are going to pot!

Woohoo!

What is it?  A new dinky one bedroom flat.
Where is it? Errr....Old Trafford, just over a mile from Manchester City Centre.
How did I pay for it? Funds from the sale of my house last year, plus small mortgage.
Do I know anything about being a landlord? Been doing bits of research, bought some books, did my yield calculations.
Is it a big risk? Yes, but hopefully a calculated one that will reap some rewards.Speculate to accumulate, etc!

Whilst I've been picking up bits and pieces, there's still lots of expenses to shell out for before it's ready to let out, starting with the damaged post box, caused I think by the previous owner/tenant due to a lost key! :-(

But anyway, it's getting sorted.

Don't feel as stressed now that completion has happened but I know there's more hard work to go!

Slippery Slope

Thus far, I’ve been pulling any stray grey hair I’ve found but age has won out, and following comments from my sisters for ‘letting the side down’, I’ve had my few grey bits ‘blended’ into my normal colour hair. This does now mean I have to go to the hairdresser’s more regularly and I do find that a chore cos I hate all the waiting around, the inane chatter and crappy magazines. Plus it aint cheap.

Bugger, but hey, no more grey bits for a while!

We were going to go out into city centre to celebrate SW’s birthday but decided to give it a miss in light of recent events so went to the Trafford Centre instead. A nice meal, lots of cocktails but at some bar, we were sat next to a piece of sh*t who was bragging to his girlfriend that he had looted an Xbox 360. HW surreptitiously took a picture of him on her phone, which showed his side profile and tattooed arm – not sure where she can post that anonymously.

Felt like poo the next day, second hangover in a just over a couple of weeks, can’t cope these days!

With part of the award I got from work, I treated myself to a new vacuum cleaner – I think the one I’ve been using is nearly 20 years old. I’ve gotten myself a Dyson and it is one serious piece of kit – it was like a Transformer as I was putting it together! I must be getting old if I’m getting excited over a hoover, haha! Anyway, gave it a whirl and it sucked up a ton of stuff from my lounge which I had already hovered with the old machine!

Somehow this new toy might make one household chore a little more enjoyable!

21 again and again

Bugger - not been about and got so much on at the mo that I've not had a chance to update.

Anyway, it's my birthday today, I think I'm still hungover from Saturday, even though I don't think I drank that much, I'm just rubbish at drinking wine!

Hightlight whilst I was at work was my nephews and niece calling me from Hong Kong and singing 'happy birthday!' Fab!

Boom stopped by despite things not being great with his mum at the moment - just good to see him even for a short while.

Anyway, yay me, another year older but not a lot wiser lol! :-D

Games On!

The London Olympic tickets are up for sale, or rather, the ballot is now up and running. Wisely, there is a large window of time during which you can request allocation of tickets which has meant that there has been no meltdown of the website as hordes of people log in to try to buy.

If Big Sis was still living in Surrey, I’d have probably applied for loads of tickets and taken a week off work and stayed down there for an ‘Olympic week’. Since she no longer lives there, I have to be selective with what I go for – need to check dates and prices.

I know some people are a bit ‘meh’ about it all but I grew up watching the Olympics and this is probably a once in a lifetime thing really for me - it’s got to be done, I must be able to say that I’ve attended at least one Olympic event!

Athletics has always been my favourite but I find that I can happily watch any event, even the really obscure ones.  

Not been up to much really recently – Boom’s 40^th birthday the other day but he didn’t want to go out to celebrate/commiserate. I bought him a Hugo Boss wallet which he thought was mega! Been working hard in my aerobics classes since I seem to be eating loads at weekends – not sure I can fit into my size 6 jeans anymore! Think I’ll just cut down on my carbs for a while, which means no pasta or potatoes. I'd rather not cut down on my alcohol so something else needs to go!

V Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Yep, no sooner are the Christmas cards and decorations out of the shops, the next commercial push for people to splash their cash needlessly is for all those 'romantics' out there. Next week, it'll be Easter eggs...

Anyway, me and Boom exchanged cards last night - he arrived too late for us to go out to eat so we just grabbed a takeaway. He also gave me an unexpected present, apparently a belated Christmas gift in fact - a nice set of speakers for my iPod!  I wasn't expecting anything from him as he'd already given me a monitor for my pc so this was a very nice surprise.

Had he given me the present on time though, I wouldn't have just last week bought myself a mini speaker myself but I did need small speakers to take on holiday so it's ok.

Rabbit Rabbit

Gosh nearly forgot to post - Kung Hei Fat Choi, or Happy Chinese New Year, all!

Seems to have come round extra fast this time round, not had my second wage packet this year yet, so struggling with the usual new year payouts to maman, papa and grandmere!

It's the year of the Rabbit (or Hare) - supposedly not a great year for me...ah well, hopefully my 'dragon' pendants and emblems will help me out here!

Not been organised at all, just plodding away but loads to do, dunno where to start!

Had the great idea of getting the house cavity walls filled and the loft re-insulated (cos the house has always been bloody cold!) - got a good price for it, but was told that I had to get the fireplace checked out. It failed the British Gas inspection as it was unsafe...bugger!

Now, have to get that sorted first, before the other jobs and still not started on my own 'little' project.

And I continue to bury my head in work, WoW, my books, football stuff and the gym. Oh and seeing Boom - spent some time with him on several occasions already this year, so already it's better than this time last year... :-)

So gotta get my arse in gear badly - how to motivate myself though??

Good-ish Tidings We Bring...

A recap of sorts before I do my year end posts.

Much of this month has been made up of:

•  not-so-nice days at work, I'm pretty much drowning in paperwork :-(
 
• a well-earned 4 day break to take advantage of the release of the World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm 

• our departmental Christmas lunch (since we couldn't get a night out sorted, the guys are just rubbish!) which was a good laugh, great Thai food too

• the Courteeners gig (- pictured - good music, drunken idiots throwing beer though)

• getting my tattoo touched up - apparently this is quite common on black tattoos once the skin has settled but I wasn't expecting another half hour of pain! Yowch! 

• my bad cold resulting in my taking a day off work and cancelling the girlie Christmas outing!  :-(

• cold weather and snow, though not enough to stop me from going into work (unfortunately) but cold enough to freeze my pipes so that on two occasions, I had no water, having to go to the gym to shower in the morning. After that first time, I stocked up on water just in case (need for kettle and loo!) but have recently been putting the central heating on full blast - not looking forward to the bill. 

• a lovely Christmas dinner with the glamorous C and her kids - very relaxing, good food, great company. Christmas morning, I Skyped the family - was fab to see them all, bar Sis #3 who was in Singapore with her family.

Caught up with Boom a couple of times - was supposed to meet him on Boxing Day but he couldn't get nurse cover for his mum and when I did see him the other day, he'd come straight from the hospital so hadn't brought my present with him.... Have to say that as he'd given me a pc monitor last month, I wasn't expecting anything from him.

Other presents-wise, I got a mixture of daft gifts including a WoW calendar, photo frames, CD, gig ticket, lots of alcohol, a 'Hit Girl' t-shirt but my main present is my Amazon Kindle - it's well cool, very easy on the eye, is kinda like a book when it's in its leather cover but to tie in with my usual new year resolution, I need to make sure I don't go mad with buying and downloading books for it (unless they're free books).

BTW, blog likely to change - at some point, need to sort out template, hate the standard widgets I have at the moment.

Cheer

Oops, I did mean to post before Christmas but time just whizzed by - oh well, Merry Christmas all and in the likely event that I don't post before the new year, all the best for 2011!

Vuvuzelas

Regardless of England's progress in the 2010 World Cup, this tournament will, I think, be remembered for the noise of the vuvuzela trumpets/horns everyone seems to be blowing in the stadia. The question is....why???

Think of the buzzing of thousands of extremely large angry bees and you won't be far wrong! Bloody annoying to be honest!

Anyway, the usual frustrating England start; a magnificent opening goal from Stevie Gerrard but then, a terrible schoolboy error by our keeper Robert Green, gifting the USA a 1-1 draw. Not quite a disaster but that should have been victory.

I was hoping to celebrate both a win and my birthday but it wasn't to be. Had a most ungirlie football evening at the glamorous C's, with good food, lots of beer and all matters of footie on the tv!

I'm in a couple of the usual fantasy football leagues for the World Cup, even running a small one at work (with a small donation to charity so I don't get done by the rules-geeks for gambling...).

Anyway, come on England - you can do better!