Monday, April 18, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
You ain't seen these - Right?
we didn't sneak in and take these photos - honest ...
the stairs 
living room
living room
Sunday, April 10, 2011
should'a kept it shut
same afternoon after I last blogged I get a confusing email from solicitor saying that the figures from the mortgage lender and builders did not match and she could not do anything until it was corrected (finger was pointed at mortgage lender). I then called my mortgage broker (close friend of mine) she assured me it was ok and proceeded to call mortgage lenders. No reply. I was not happy bunny - felt like once again our house was being prised from my fingers.
But following day I get message from mortgage broker to say everything was ok, new letter was issued to solicitor to explain it all! Crises avoided once again.
Question - why was I the one who had to do the calling everyone? isn't that what everyone else is being paid to do?
But following day I get message from mortgage broker to say everything was ok, new letter was issued to solicitor to explain it all! Crises avoided once again.
Question - why was I the one who had to do the calling everyone? isn't that what everyone else is being paid to do?
anyway some new piccies to show everyone -
Front of house
Not such a great photo but side photo that shows part of garden and back of the garage - at the bottom left hand side of the photo.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Buga!
After weeks of messing us and solicitors around our buyer pulls out - leaving us out of pocket by a nice sum of cash!
No reason given as she wouldn't discuss her personal life with the solicitor. That's ok but an apology would be nice. Karma.
No reason given as she wouldn't discuss her personal life with the solicitor. That's ok but an apology would be nice. Karma.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Our House in the Middle of the...
Field?
Not quite in the middle of the street, more at the corner of the new development.
This is the front - spare bedroom top left, bathroom in the middle, another bedroom top right.
bottom left is the living room and bottom right is the kitchen window.
Side view - doors to garden from living room and master bedroom window above it and some view of the garden too.
Right hand side of house showing bedroom window on top floor and dining room window below it
View from the front of the house - across a parkland area and in the background you can just make out the lights from the local football teams pitch.
And finally the path that runs to the wooded area
Not really much to see at the moment - we've only just finalised the paperwork today for the carpets, tiles, flooring and kitchen units today. Fingers crossed that I can get the network cable purchased, measured and cut before they put the plasterboard up. I plan to network the rooms in the house and the kind people at work have already given me some patch cables and a patch panel to get the network started. This is going to be my first geeky project, next is to get the surround sound cables in too.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Life after a BSc
I was going to blog about life after studying for a BSc, but you know what it sounded really dull. Yep I got a BSc, that was exciting, I still have the graduation ceremony to look forward to but that's a few months away yet and that will be exciting too. I've been made an unconditional offer of a Masters in HCI (Human Computer Interaction) which I'm thinking about - yep that's exciting also. But what's really exciting just now (and also hugely stressful) is that we are buying a brand new house. Yipppeeee!
This may sound strange but (fingers crossed that all contracts are exchanged and there are no further little hiccups) this one feels like a proper house. Detached, with a garage, spare room for guests - or a study for me. A nice sized kitchen/dining room.. I could go on but I wont bore you. But you know what I mean - we love our current house but now we have outgrown her and we're ready to move on. Did I say I was REALLY excited about a brand new kitchen? yes? oh ok then
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Well here it is
Merry Christmas, everybody having fun?
This week I have survived the office party (just), been a teeny bit embarrassed to be mentioned in the Christmas Speech by the VP as being the latest "graduate" to Citrix and won a lovely Kellogs Hamper (thanks notsupermum)
as well as having dinner at Frosts Garden Centre with a visit from Santa!
Today I get a rest, well not really, as I still had to do the usual sorts of things like washing (erm because someone leaked tattoo ink onto the bed sheets - picture of tattoo will be shown another time), picking up a parcel, getting Emily's hair cut, quick visit to office to grab books, reading material and course work, along with digging up slightly frozen potatoes, carrots, parsnips, leeks and brussel sprouts for dinner tomorrow. Not too sure about the carrots and parsnips but the other veg looked good enough to eat.
Well we wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year for 2011!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Wooo I got educated
This morning I received my exam result email from the Open University, probably the last time I see one of these (*grins*) but after three years, only 1 month off from studying and overlapping two courses for 5 months - double ouch - I was (un)officially awarded a BSc(Open) - that means I now have a Bachelor of Science Open degree - the Open part means I haven't followed a particular Open Uni course path but rather chosen what I've wanted to study all within the realms of the IT courses.
But what's best of all is that I actually achieved a Grade 2 (72%) in my last exam -the last exam that I thought I had failed (I even declared to the world that if I get 40% I would be happy because at least that was a pass) so anyhooo I've managed to outdo myself with this one, I have no idea how I achieved such a high score on an exam paper that I thought was a downright biatch. Go figure or is that Woo Go ME!
My gown is booked, the ceremony is booked at the beautiful looking Ely Cathedral for the 4th June 2011 and my allocated 3 guest places have all been booked and paid for - so there's my xmas money already spent :) easy come - easy go.
I'd like to say a big thank you to all the brilliant and amazingly talented brainy folk I work with at Citrix, for pointing me in the right direction when I could not see the trees for the forests, for my friends for supporting me and for my family putting up with the fact that I turned into a horrible ogre (well most of the time!)
I now have the next 9 months off from studying, and I'm now looking forward to starting a Masters next year.
Monday, November 08, 2010
Beauty and The Beast
this week we are reviewing Beauty and The Beast on blu-ray. The first thing Phoebe said when she saw the film was "brilliant this is my favourite film!" I was amazed as she hasn't seen this film since her early childhood, I on the other hand couldn't remember if I had seen it at all.
Anyway we finally sat down today to watch the special edition of the film. What a brilliant film! It's been a long time since I've sat down and watched a really good film that not only had a great story, a great ending and made me cry. Belle spurns the affections of the arrogant Gaston, frees her father from imprisonment in return for her own freedom, and then falls in love with the Beast - aka The Prince (the hunk) :)
Official website: http://www.disney.co.uk/DisneyDVDs/DVDs/beauty-and-the-beast-dimond-editition.jsp
Blu-ray bonus features
- Backstage Disney
- Beyond Beauty: The Untold Stories Behind The Beauty and the Beast
- Broadway Beginnings
- Composing a Classic: A Musical Conversation with Alan Menken, Don Hahn and Richard Kraft
- Deleted Scenes
- Alternate Story Open
- Belle in the Library
- Family Play
- Enchanted Challenge: A Disney Quest Game
- Bon Jour, Who is This? A Disney TelePlay Game
- Disney Channel Music Video
· Classic DVD Bonus Features
doing nothing
finally after doing too much my body has told me today to rest. I woke up with horrible pain everywhere - every joint and muscle was screaming at me to stop. My throat had that feeling that it was a bit sore or in the process of developing something slimey to cough up. We shall see what develops.
so in the meantime some piccies to show you our pumpkin art, later some photos of what we made out of the pumpkin flesh - *muwahahahah *
so in the meantime some piccies to show you our pumpkin art, later some photos of what we made out of the pumpkin flesh - *muwahahahah *
Sunday, November 07, 2010
i am so tirrrrred
since September -
ordered my own 40th birthday cake
I've sat my final Open University Exam - it was not a good exam (sighs)
turned 40
spent 2 days in Dublin for training
learnt to make some fine cocktails - shame I got too drunk to remember how to recreate them
danced the night away(and my feet didn't hurt the next day)
re-kindled my love for my allotment - though at the moment it resembles a weed patch
carved pumpkins
eaten pumpkins
made pumpkin cakes
made banana and choc chip muffins
(I won't list the house work and stuff as that would bore you tremendously)
started to tidy out my clothes storage (or lack of it!)
organised to do a sale (to declutter the house/attic) - then realised I wont have a car to transport my stuff - doh!
had a deep tissue massage using odd looking glass suction cups - but it was awesome and left me with some odd looking bruises and marks
re-acquainted myself with the gym - ouch
spent a day riding to London and back to test ride a ninja 250R - whoosh that was fast
went for my first run in 2 years - double ouch
.....
next I shall be making 8 cushion covers and a taggie and spending a week in a rehab centre - well I need a holiday and this one is free :)
ordered my own 40th birthday cake
I've sat my final Open University Exam - it was not a good exam (sighs)
turned 40
spent 2 days in Dublin for training
learnt to make some fine cocktails - shame I got too drunk to remember how to recreate them
danced the night away(and my feet didn't hurt the next day)
re-kindled my love for my allotment - though at the moment it resembles a weed patch
carved pumpkins
eaten pumpkins
made pumpkin cakes
made banana and choc chip muffins
(I won't list the house work and stuff as that would bore you tremendously)
started to tidy out my clothes storage (or lack of it!)
organised to do a sale (to declutter the house/attic) - then realised I wont have a car to transport my stuff - doh!
had a deep tissue massage using odd looking glass suction cups - but it was awesome and left me with some odd looking bruises and marks
re-acquainted myself with the gym - ouch
spent a day riding to London and back to test ride a ninja 250R - whoosh that was fast
went for my first run in 2 years - double ouch
.....
next I shall be making 8 cushion covers and a taggie and spending a week in a rehab centre - well I need a holiday and this one is free :)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Part-two
wow sorry left it so long before talking about our second day at Disneyland. We visited the Studio park on day two of our trip. I've not visited this park before so this was going to be a treat for me, oh and Emily.
We got there early just as the gates were about to open so we quickly navigated our way to Toy Story PlayLand and took our first ride of the day on the Slinky Dog, brilliant! We both thought that that was a great ride, excellent for the very young kids. Next we had to queue a little while for the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop - Emily loved this one, I have to admit I didn't like the feeling at all (see reason for not flying - as this was what this ride felt like). Three of you sit in the row - biggest person in the middle, and it takes you high up and then drops you - you know that feeling when you are in the plane and the plane "dips" a little and you get that feeling in your tummy? Well yeah I DON'T like that feeling.
Next we took the Studio Tram Tour and that was a pretty good experience and quite interesting to see some of the work behind the scenes of a "set". Be prepared to be roasted and soaked on this one ;)
We had to walk past the Twilight Tower of Terror - it looked like an awesome ride - sadly Emily was too small for this one.
Next we took the Armageddon Special Effects - where they theme of the experience is "your in a real set preparing to shoot a new scene" . Bit of a long winded start to get the audience warmed up, and I was quite surprised that even after all the signs saying that if you have small children who don't like loud noises then this may not be suitable.. blah blah... that some couple took their loudly crying and obviously upset small (yes younger than Emily) on this one!! I mean come on - the kid cried during the introduction, the guy leading us through this event kept saying "you know not suitable for people with nervous dispositions..." . Still this set of parents were adamant that they were going to subject their son to this. I'm just glad that it was so noisy inside that even if he was screaming , we didn't hear it! (is that bad of me?)
After we found the Stitch Live show and this had to be the best of all! We entered an auditorium where there were some benches to sit on and a large area at the front where the young kids could sit. Emily was more than happy to sit right in front of the large screen. The show started like a film but Stitch was talking directly and live to the crowd. I have to say we laughed and laughed through this one - it was really brilliant. Stitch was interacting with the kids and adults, making us chuckle as he took the mickey out of one parent, and then made friends with another girl, took her photo and then showed us the photo - how brilliant! Oh and then he swallowed the camera. Excellent - I'd give this one 5 stars.
By this time we were feeling pretty tired with the heat, so Emily played in the CineMagic area - recording her voice singing a Disney tune, playing with sounds and colouring in some of the characters.
Our last ride of the day, or last two rides, were on the Flying Carpets. I managed to quickly get a fast pass (only some rides offer this feature and is well worth doing early in the day as some get booked out pretty early on in the afternoon) , and we decided to queue for the ride in the ordinary queue anyway. Brilliant idea as we managed to get two rides out of it in the space of 10 minutes by joining the fast pass queue after our first ride!
After this we headed back to the hotel, picked up our cases and went to wait at the station for our first of 3 trains back home.
Oh boy we both were exhausted. I think its taken Emily a week to recover :)
We got there early just as the gates were about to open so we quickly navigated our way to Toy Story PlayLand and took our first ride of the day on the Slinky Dog, brilliant! We both thought that that was a great ride, excellent for the very young kids. Next we had to queue a little while for the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop - Emily loved this one, I have to admit I didn't like the feeling at all (see reason for not flying - as this was what this ride felt like). Three of you sit in the row - biggest person in the middle, and it takes you high up and then drops you - you know that feeling when you are in the plane and the plane "dips" a little and you get that feeling in your tummy? Well yeah I DON'T like that feeling.
Next we took the Studio Tram Tour and that was a pretty good experience and quite interesting to see some of the work behind the scenes of a "set". Be prepared to be roasted and soaked on this one ;)
We had to walk past the Twilight Tower of Terror - it looked like an awesome ride - sadly Emily was too small for this one.
Next we took the Armageddon Special Effects - where they theme of the experience is "your in a real set preparing to shoot a new scene" . Bit of a long winded start to get the audience warmed up, and I was quite surprised that even after all the signs saying that if you have small children who don't like loud noises then this may not be suitable.. blah blah... that some couple took their loudly crying and obviously upset small (yes younger than Emily) on this one!! I mean come on - the kid cried during the introduction, the guy leading us through this event kept saying "you know not suitable for people with nervous dispositions..." . Still this set of parents were adamant that they were going to subject their son to this. I'm just glad that it was so noisy inside that even if he was screaming , we didn't hear it! (is that bad of me?)
After we found the Stitch Live show and this had to be the best of all! We entered an auditorium where there were some benches to sit on and a large area at the front where the young kids could sit. Emily was more than happy to sit right in front of the large screen. The show started like a film but Stitch was talking directly and live to the crowd. I have to say we laughed and laughed through this one - it was really brilliant. Stitch was interacting with the kids and adults, making us chuckle as he took the mickey out of one parent, and then made friends with another girl, took her photo and then showed us the photo - how brilliant! Oh and then he swallowed the camera. Excellent - I'd give this one 5 stars.
By this time we were feeling pretty tired with the heat, so Emily played in the CineMagic area - recording her voice singing a Disney tune, playing with sounds and colouring in some of the characters.
Our last ride of the day, or last two rides, were on the Flying Carpets. I managed to quickly get a fast pass (only some rides offer this feature and is well worth doing early in the day as some get booked out pretty early on in the afternoon) , and we decided to queue for the ride in the ordinary queue anyway. Brilliant idea as we managed to get two rides out of it in the space of 10 minutes by joining the fast pass queue after our first ride!
After this we headed back to the hotel, picked up our cases and went to wait at the station for our first of 3 trains back home.
Oh boy we both were exhausted. I think its taken Emily a week to recover :)
Monday, September 06, 2010
Disney Daft
You all must think I've gone a bit mad recently - well yes the overwhelming pressure of constantly studying for the last 3 years has had it toll on me - but I'm Disney Daft for a reason. You see I've just spent the weekend at Disneyland Paris! It's an awesome place to visit, and I know there is probably a bigger and better one in the States, but for someone who doesn't enjoying flying visiting the one near Paris is a far better option for me.
I last visited Disneyland with Phoebe oooh about 5 years ago. This year it was Emily's turn and at just being 3 years old I thought we could try a weekend away just the two of us. First option was how the heck was I going to get there without flying? ooh let me see - what has many wheels, some tracks and can travel at great speed under the ground? That's right Eurostar!!!
I booked tickets for travel (luckily Emily is under four and therefore didn't have to pay for a ticket for her unless I wanted to book a seat for her). The journey was was pretty good, catching an early train from our local station to Kings Cross and then walking across to the St Pancras Eurostar station, took only 5 minutes. We found a beautiful station with lots of lovely shops - so sorry I didn't have time to stop and check some out, perhaps next time. We checked in, went through security and passport control, grabbed some magazines from one shop and sat to wait for our train. Getting on the train was easy and straight forward - not like travelling by aeroplane that's for sure. I'd definitely say this was a more relaxed way to get there. The journey itself only took about 2.5 hours and it was lovely, arriving just outside Disneyland itself - what a hoot. I would recommend that if you get the Disney direct train to grab yourself the Disney Express service which checks in your bags for you, as they give you tickets to the park so you can just hop off the train and get straight on with the fun. We didn't do that so instead we waited for our coach to pick us up and we dropped off our luggage before heading back for some dinner at the Disney Village.
Our hotel was the Radisson Blu at the golf "area" of the resort which actually made for a nice quiet hotel (unlike the Kyriad I stayed at last time - noisy screaming shouting kids till very late at night). We had a great room - a large double bed for me and a sofa bed for Emily - though she took to hogging my side of the double bed. Room was very spacious, with not only a TV but a PS2 with its own screen - that if I had known the room had one I would have brought some films for Emily to watch. Our bathroom was lovely with double sinks - one for me and one for Emily.
After a nice nights sleep, we got up early, had a nice breakfast and then headed to the park to pick up our 2 day passes that let us visit both parks.
Our first call was to the main Disney park where we had our first ride on the Carousel-de-Lancelot followed by the Dumbo the flying Elephant, Peter Pans Flight, Alice's Curious Labyrinth, "It's a small world" which is a bit surreal. Next we took a stop in the Discovery Land but there weren't many rides that Emily wanted to go on, we did take a quick shot at the Buzz Light Year Laser Blast - which was pretty good. We then headed to Adventure Land and Emily wanted to explore the Pirate ship but sadly that was shut so instead she had a play in the Pirates Beach and the Adventure Isle.
By this time it was late afternoon and Emily was getting tired, so we made quick trip to Adventure Land but nothing tempted her there so we headed to the main street to watch the parade. Emily almost fell asleep on the pavement whilst we watched the parade - time to head off for bed.
Part-two tomorrow...
I last visited Disneyland with Phoebe oooh about 5 years ago. This year it was Emily's turn and at just being 3 years old I thought we could try a weekend away just the two of us. First option was how the heck was I going to get there without flying? ooh let me see - what has many wheels, some tracks and can travel at great speed under the ground? That's right Eurostar!!!
I booked tickets for travel (luckily Emily is under four and therefore didn't have to pay for a ticket for her unless I wanted to book a seat for her). The journey was was pretty good, catching an early train from our local station to Kings Cross and then walking across to the St Pancras Eurostar station, took only 5 minutes. We found a beautiful station with lots of lovely shops - so sorry I didn't have time to stop and check some out, perhaps next time. We checked in, went through security and passport control, grabbed some magazines from one shop and sat to wait for our train. Getting on the train was easy and straight forward - not like travelling by aeroplane that's for sure. I'd definitely say this was a more relaxed way to get there. The journey itself only took about 2.5 hours and it was lovely, arriving just outside Disneyland itself - what a hoot. I would recommend that if you get the Disney direct train to grab yourself the Disney Express service which checks in your bags for you, as they give you tickets to the park so you can just hop off the train and get straight on with the fun. We didn't do that so instead we waited for our coach to pick us up and we dropped off our luggage before heading back for some dinner at the Disney Village.
Our hotel was the Radisson Blu at the golf "area" of the resort which actually made for a nice quiet hotel (unlike the Kyriad I stayed at last time - noisy screaming shouting kids till very late at night). We had a great room - a large double bed for me and a sofa bed for Emily - though she took to hogging my side of the double bed. Room was very spacious, with not only a TV but a PS2 with its own screen - that if I had known the room had one I would have brought some films for Emily to watch. Our bathroom was lovely with double sinks - one for me and one for Emily.
After a nice nights sleep, we got up early, had a nice breakfast and then headed to the park to pick up our 2 day passes that let us visit both parks.
Our first call was to the main Disney park where we had our first ride on the Carousel-de-Lancelot followed by the Dumbo the flying Elephant, Peter Pans Flight, Alice's Curious Labyrinth, "It's a small world" which is a bit surreal. Next we took a stop in the Discovery Land but there weren't many rides that Emily wanted to go on, we did take a quick shot at the Buzz Light Year Laser Blast - which was pretty good. We then headed to Adventure Land and Emily wanted to explore the Pirate ship but sadly that was shut so instead she had a play in the Pirates Beach and the Adventure Isle.
By this time it was late afternoon and Emily was getting tired, so we made quick trip to Adventure Land but nothing tempted her there so we headed to the main street to watch the parade. Emily almost fell asleep on the pavement whilst we watched the parade - time to head off for bed.
Part-two tomorrow...
Monday, August 30, 2010
Film Review
you all must think that all I do is watch films - well yes that is partly true, but I don't get the chance to see all the films I want to - for example I've been trying to find the time for the last 3 weeks to go and see Inception. We turned up at the cinema on one of the films last few weeks of showing , on orange Wednesday night and gah it was sold out.
Anyway what films I do get to see I like to talk about, for example I get to review Disney films which are fantastic - if you have kids plus a blu-ray player then any sane parent must buy these films. I have lost count of the times my youngest as put them on and sat through the films again and again. Best of all is that they come in dual format - Blu-ray and DVD - which is mighty handy for those long trips that the kids have to endure when they visit the relatives in Scotland (it's about a 10 hour trip split over two days - "Mum are we there yet?" - know what I'm saying?).
Ok so back to the subject in hand, this time I'm reviewing The Princess and the Frog
What I liked about this film was that it wasn't the typical fairy tale story - you know the one about poor girl makes good and her princess saves her. This was more like poor girl who has a dream to make it big, becomes a frog, has adventure with prince frog, then they make it big! I wont give too much away about the story but it was most enjoyable film I've seen in a long time and more in keeping with todays "fairytales"!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)