august already

Isn't it amazing - it's August already!  Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?  I'm sorry I haven't written since MissG's birthday (almost a month ago) - time really does fly by.

Well, what have I been up to?  Quite a lot as it happens.  The children finished school on 22nd July so it's been nice not having to be tied to doing the school run.  The days seem so much longer when you don't have to down tools at 3pm.  I try to take off as much time as I can over the school holidays so that we can have days out so I tend to go into the office for a couple of afternoons a week but stay until 6pm to catch up!

It was MrG's birthday at the end of July and our 25th Wedding Anniversary at the beginning of August so we had lots to celebrate. 

We took ourselves off  (just the two of us!) to London for a few days and although we had a fabulous time, I can't believe that we visited the Capital during a heat wave - it was incredibly hot, hot, hot!
We took the train on a grey Monday morning and arrived at sunny Euston by lunch time.

A short walk found us at Pret A Manger for a yummy lunch.

Then we set off to find our hotel - an elegant 4 star boutique hotel known as The Academy, Bloomsbury.  As we were celebrating we booked a hotel suite!  It was beautiful.  It was a lovely large room with three tall windows, tastefully decorated and one of the biggest beds we've slept in!  We had a large sofa, desk, stereo plus the usual TV, mini bar etc.  How romantic!

We walked miles and miles.  On the first day we visited China Town

We saw some amazing shops

We had a tasty Chinese banquet

...and some Chinese beer!

We bought MissG a very colourful bag (photo to follow)

We sat on a bench to watch the world go by and to appreciate the cooler air of the evening. MrG bought me a red rose from a Spanish street seller - how romantic!

Next day - Tuesday 2nd August.  Our 25th Wedding Anniversary.  On this day 25 years ago we were a mere 21/22 years old and were just setting out on married life.  We've been together longer than we were apart!

Breakfast that morning - a hearty one to set us up for the day!  Full English for MrG and this glorious fresh fruit and croissants for me.  I only wish I could have this prepared for me every morning!

..and then off we go - a walk to Camden Market

...then to the Thames where we watched all the boats coming and going.  We saw the London Eye but didn't go on as MrG's not keen on heights and I wasn't sure about the heat -  do you think the pods are air conditioned?

...then we got a taxi to the Tate Modern.  It was the one place I wanted to visit while in London as I hadn't been before and I thought I'd love it.  I'd like to say I did but... I was very disappointed. There was only this one piece that I really liked -  it lit up the room and made me smile.

A walk over the millennium bridge past the fantastic street musicians playing beautiful  classical music - amazing.  Then we headed back to the hotel for a very indulgent afternoon nap - bliss.  The temperature reached 31 degrees so we had a siesta and waited until it cooled a little before heading back outside. 

We found a Turkish restaurant for our evening meal - Tas in Bloomsbury.  We sat outside between the pots of bamboo grasses to catch the evening breeze and to watch the world go by.  The food was delicious - we couldn't have chosen a better place to enjoy our anniversary meal.

We had a thoroughly wonderful time - it was so good to be together.  Relaxed, happy and all loved up!  Here's to us growing old and grey together.

happy birthday little missG

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday Little MissG

Happy Birthday to you!

This is a picture of my Little MissG 14 years ago.  Doesn't she look adorable?  It's almost enough to make me broody again.  You look back and only remember the good times don't you?  The sleepless nights are a dim and distant memory and I've forgotten just how hard it was to wake up in the morning feeling just as tired as you felt at bedtime!  I do love a good nights sleep.

 

 And more pictures of her here (age 2) with her hat collection!

 and now my little one is 14 years old!

She is taking a few of her friends out to Pizza Express at the weekend to celebrate her birthday so tonight we stayed home and I cooked one of her favourite meals.  We then had a chocolate fondue with marshmallows, strawberries and raspberries.  Yummy!

She came home from school laden down with lots of lovely pressies from her lovely friends and then had yet more presents and cards to open when she got home.  She was absolutely delighted.  She is now the very proud owner of her very own camera.  She has been out in the garden tonight taking lots of photos of the plants in our garden so she'll be able to supply me with some lovely shots for my blog.  Quite handy really!

teacher's strike day!

The teacher strike last week meant that Little MissG and I could have an impromptu day  out in the Lakes.  We didn't get there until lunchtime so we had our picnic at Brockhole Visitor Centre before moving on to Rydal where we went to White Moss Walks for a lovely stroll around the lake.

Please excuse the quality of the photo, it was taken on the move!

 

 

 

 

wonderful weather

We have had some wonderful summery weather. 

It has been gorgeous with us for over a week now. BBQ weather as they say! MrG insisted on a BBQ on Saturday evening - he is a real meat-eater so a BBQ is his idea of heaven. It's lovely to sit in the garden to have our evening meal even when it's not a BBQ. It's like being on holiday!

Talking of holidays I have managed to book a holiday cottage for a week in the summer holidays. It was quite a struggle to find something this year as so many cottages are already fully booked until the end of September! I left it until the last minute because I wasn't sure whether we should book one this year because we are so busy and have to work around so many dates - MrG and I will celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary at the beginning of August (an amazing achievement but boy does it make us feel old!) so I wanted to keep that week free to try and organise a romantic break together, the A'level results are announced on 18th August and the GCSE results on 25th so the boys will have to go into school to collect them. 

We have 6 family birthdays in July including Little MissG's 14th birthday and we will return from our summer holiday on Ben's 19th! I don't feel old enough to have a 19 year old son or to be celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary!  This age thing just creeps up on you doesn't it?

happy father's day

Happy fathers Day to my lovely Dad.  I'm sorry I won't be with him today.  I am looking forward to Wednesday though when I'll be spending the day with him when he comes to visit with my Aunt Gill who is over here from Canada for a three week holiday.

I made a Fathers Day card for him using an old photo of him aged 20.  I'm not sure what he'll make of me posting it here for all to see - he's dressed in a shirt and tie whilst roller skating!  He looks so much like my son in this photo and yet I don't really see the similarity in them in person.

Happy Fathers Day to MrG too.  He received some nice Fathers Day pressies from his wee brood, he had poached eggs on toasted muffins for breakfast and little MissG took him to see the new snow leopard at the Wildlife Oasis.  She made this lovely card for him (picture to follow) and some cup cakes. Mmmmm yummy!

It was also my mother-in-laws birthday this week - Happy Birthday Antonietta!  MrG was hoping to visit (and take his Harley out for a ride) but he had a stressful week at work and ended up having to work on Saturday. 

happy father's day

Happy fathers Day to my lovely Dad.  I'm sorry I won't be with him today.  I am looking forward to Wednesday though when I'll be spending the day with him when he comes to visit with my Aunt Gill who is over here from Canada for a three week holiday.

I made a Fathers Day card for him using an old photo of him aged 20.  I'm not sure what he'll make of me posting it here for all to see - he's dressed in a shirt and tie whilst roller skating!  He looks so much like my son in this photo and yet I don't really see the similarity in them in person.

Happy Fathers Day to MrG too.  He received some nice Fathers Day pressies from his wee brood, he had poached eggs on toasted muffins for breakfast and little MissG took him to see the new snow leopard at the Wildlife Oasis.  She made this lovely card for him (picture to follow) and some cup cakes. Mmmmm yummy!

It was also my mother-in-laws birthday this week - Happy Birthday Antonietta!  MrG was hoping to visit (and take his Harley out for a ride) but he had a stressful week at work and ended up having to work on Saturday. 

busy, busy, busy

Well this week has been busy, busy, busy.  Started off with a blood test first thing on Monday morning because after going to the Doc with an unrelated swollen foot it was discovered that I have an over-active thyroid!  Not knowing what the thyroid is or what it does I went online and did some research and found that all the symptoms that I have are down to the thyroid and not down to me going mad!  The irritability, the over anxiousness, the unexpected mood swings, the increased heart rate and palpitations.  It's funny (or not so funny really) that the two symptoms that I don't have are the ones that are preferable to the ones above!  These include: an increase in energy (I wish) and a loss of weight despite an apparent increase of appetite (I wish.  Losing a couple of stone would be OK with me!)  So... I have to have regular blood tests and take lots of little pills until my thyroid calms down and does what it's supposed to do.

Now on a cheerier note look what I treated myself to on Tuesday...

I spent the day ferrying my children around so I though I deserved a treat.  (I know I've just told you that I need to lose 2 stone but....).  Little MissG is still in school full time but the boys are on exam leave and only have to go into school to sit their exams.  Son1 is at a school that is 8 miles in one direction and Son2 is at a school 8 miles in the opposite direction so  I spent most of the day in the car dropping off and picking up.  I'm sure you agree that I deserved that treat!

I have started decorating my living room this week so haven't had the time to do any crafty things.  I did buy some cardboard letters ready to decoupage and some lovely paper to make cards.  I'll let you see them when I finish them - hopefully soon as I'm really looking forward to having a go with cards as it's not something I've done before.

I have decoupaged lots of letters before - they make lovely presents.  Here's a photo of the ones I made for myself to put on my kitchen dresser.

I did manage to finish my rug last night.  I said that I was going to try to get it done at the weekend so I'm just a couple of days over!  I would like to sew some canvas to the back so help protect the loops of wool before I put it in my summerhouse.

I've taken some photos with my camera on my new phone but I am struggling to get them onto the computer.  My hubby did say I should get an iPhone so that it would be compatible with our computers both at home and work but I felt that I couldn't justify the expense as I really don't use my mobile much at all.  I chose a phone that has email so that I'll be able to send my photos to my computer but I'm unable to get the blinking thing to work!   That's another task to add to the list.  

What did I tell you - busy, busy, busy!