Today I'm upset - last night I was infuriated that a company that I had used to make a claim on unfair endownment advice had the nerve to charge me 34% of my payment from the company - especially when they did little else than some paper work. I was so angry. It wasn't a huge amount of money that I got but it was going to be enough to help pay all the bills that are coming up from purchase of our new home. How do these companies have the nerve to do such a thing ? It was probably my fault too for not reading the fine print - but I was still amazed that they could charge so much. My advice to any of you seeking compensation for a mis-sold endownment is to see an independant financial advise and always check out the costs.

My apologies for not writing sooner - (Thanks Chris!)
Yes yes I know I would be useless at keeping a diary - thats why I dont have one! I've not really had much to say apart from I have re-discovered ebay - and now I wish I hadn't as I have the bug!  I've been checking it everyday - relentlessly.  I've taken up a couple of new hobbies since I've moved to St Neots - one is making jewellery, I love making rings - white gold is my fave at the moment,  and now I'm looking at making some necklaces with beads and semi-precious stones.  And what does this have to do with ebay - well I've been checking it out for some cheap jewellery kits - and I found a lovely site called http://www.zenasoverthemoon.co.uk who sells her items on ebay.  I've just purchased a couple of kits and am now anxiously awaiting their arrival. 

I've also bought a portable sewing machine (which I'm scared of using in case it is a dud - I read some of the reviews from previous sales and I was quite shocked at the aggressive behaviour used when they made replies to customers about missing items - I thought I had been scammed!  But it did arrive and I was relieved),  a craft kit for children, a pink tiara kit and a CD.  I've also taken the first step in selling some items as I recently received 4 free SIM cards from a mobile phone company - and decided I didn't need them - hence they are on ebay awaiting to be bought!

I decided to get rid of some stuff (in order to pay for my increasing ebay habit) and I've spent the evening photographing old computer books - then I realised that it was going to cost a lot to post these books as they are very heavy - hmmmm.  I shall ebay them anyway and see what happens - but I will include the prices for posting these heavy items - it might put people off!  So what's left to sell - well lots really - my old hair straighteners are going in, old mobile phones - basically a clear out of the attic (and Drew would be estactic to hear that - as he says he's just not a "tat" person). 

Do Phoebe and I hoard clutter and cause chaos?  Being girls we most certainly do! Phoebe has a bedroom that would shock most parents - endless boxes of toys that havent been touched since we moved here in February.  There are 3 large toy boxes under her bed and she has a large table in her bedroom that is littered with magazines, toys and all sorts of kiddie trash! 

Watch out ebay - here we come!

How different my saturday turned out compared to the morning! Would you believe I ended up having my nose cautersied - that hurt - and it still hurts today! Boo Hoo. Well it's not too bad now but I still feel like I have a ton of cotton wool up my hooter and I ended up breathing through my mouth most of the night - hence the sore throat and furry tongue. Well I hope it helps stop my nose bleeds for good. What was even more bizarre that the consultant I saw here was the consultant I was booked in to see in Aberdeen - and to top it all off if I had stayed in Aberdeen my appointment wasn't until January 2005 - can you believe that? I got to see the same consultant in Hinchingbrook hospital on a Saturday afternoon 3rd July 2004 - so cool! so for the next six months I have to go for allergy testing which is a bit worrying incase they discover that I am allergic to cats - as I have one lovely ginger kitty just waiting to join us in August sometime when we move into our new home. I will be so gutted if I was - I love my old fat fluffy kitty - mind you I could always get one of those bald cats!

Oh no I couldn't sleep last night because I was scared. I watched a horror movie called Dead End with a friend of mine, I spent the entire film armed with a pillow to protect me from the nasty ghost. Very spooky film - I do recommend watching it but you must come armed with some friends, all the lights switched on and pillow for protection. Well another surprise came for me in the post today - I won another prize - this time 2 cinema tickets to see Jersey Girl - I have no idea what this film is about so I shall sign off and have a look on t'internet.
ciao huns!

Yawn - I'm soo tireeeddd today. Yesterday I spent the entire day in a little plastic boat (sorry Pico Laser) being battered about like a rubber frog in a tin can. The day started good - we got a little briefing on how to put the boat together, how to tack (for you land-lubbers this means turing the boat towards the wind)- but there was a lot of technical stuff to take in at the same time. After a little sailing close to the shore we were then let loose on the open seas (sorry lake), the sky got greyer, the wind got stronger and we were all wizing about like mad - Simon look very professional as he was leaning out of his boat most of the time. I was a little slow and decided it was safer for me to keep my body inside the boat rather than risk getting a soaking. As it turned out I got a soaking more than once - infact 3 times as my boat decided it would rather dunk me in the water than sail me back to shore. Ho Hum I even managed a 360 degree turn in the darn thing - before our nice instructor Graham flew over in his powered boat and dragged my little sad pico and cold me to shore.

It was a very enjoyable day and I'm sure my dad would be proud of me - so I must phone him tonight and have a gossip about boats! Tally ho ship mates!

A certain person at work had a brainwave that it would be a great idea to tell each other some secrets about our selves, I thought this was funny at first but then I had a think about all the secrets that I had and well I discovered I had lots and lots and even more bags full of them! Then I started to worry about why I had so many secrets! Then I worried some more as I know I let these secrets slip after 2 glasses of white wine - gosh so vulnerable :), maybe that was a secret too?

tee hee - what are your secrets then?

Ok I'll let you have one little one....

I can put my entire pinky finger right up my nose!

I stress too much! But hell who doesn't. But at what point do you say enough is enough and do something about it? I know I have a heap of work to do - but something in my head just keeps telling me that it's ok it will get done and somehow I know inevitably it will as I always pull one of those 24 hour stints and stay up late doing stuff. I can feel a late nighter coming on - maybe this weekend!

I've discovered that I can now log in from home and connect to my "office" - this is a fantastic concept, one that I tried to get accepted in my last place of work (a company that was involved with system integration - that wouldn't allow me to integrate from home!). This is a blessing to me and I look forward to those boredom moments when I decide to hit the computer and go surfing for things, now I can connect to work and actually do some!

Monday Afternoon at work - I've been forced to write my first ever self-appraisal. What can I say about myself? Any comments are helpful.

PS Gary - my big secret is........................ - you'll have to wait until friday to find out

I've just had an exhausting weekend! On Saturday the dude and I travelled into London to Hyde Park to see The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, fantastic concert but the grounds of the gig had been partitoned off and we could not get anywhere near the front - a bit of a let down really. But it was utterly exhausting - we both felt like grand-parents when we left, complaining about our sore backs and aching legs - well really - next I will be talking about my bowel movements and what not. Whilst we were in London I managed to sample the delicious Krispy Kremes from Harrods that my friend Tosha had been talking - very yummy I am definately going back for some of the Chocolate cream donuts - mouthwatering to say the least! I'm hoping that the remaining 3, (sorry Tosha but I had to have another one), made it back safely from the gig and into the fridge.

We finally got home at 1am, only for me to get up at 8.30am ish,(Do - your Dude didn't surface till 10.30 and that was only after Phoebe and I had to wake him!), and then we all had to dash off to Summerhill to meet my friends and their kids for the day. This school is a very unique school so please take a look at the website Summer Hill. We found the children were very enlightened and very happy.

Now we are home, fed, watered and very satisfied and I'm off to bed to get some well deserved sleeeeep......zzzzz zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz

Another week has sped by and I wonder what I have actually done for the past 604800 seconds. 201600 were spent sleeping, 50400 were spent eating, 2940 brushing my teeth, 16860 bathing, 50400 watching TV, 32400 surfing the net, 216000 at work, 12600 driving to work, 3600 ferrying kids around, 18000 on housework - where is my free time?

Monday Morning Again!
I'm truly glad to be back at work today, ok I know that most of you wont agree but I'm pretty sure that some people will agree if they had a bad weekend trying to do parenty stuff. I agreed to go along with a friend of mine for a camping weekend with some other friends, just the mums and kids, what I didn't realise is that most of the kids were toddlers (and we are talking tantrum age here), so poor Phoebe didn't really have anyone her age to play with. I've spent the past 2 days with screaming, shrieking, crying, howling children and their equally stressed shrieking mums, getting up at 6 am, having soggy biscuits thrown at me, pencils jabbed in my arm and aromatic smelly nappies. There were some good points to it all - there was no television to sedate the kids. Going to the toilet was an adventure, especially in your pyjamas. The weather was great, and I had fun chasing the kids around the tents trying to tickle them.

Hurrah I've managed to write two days in a row! Such an achievement - reward yourself with a chocolate cookie!
Oops had 3 chocolate cookies yesterday - "Do Not Pass Go". I have just spent 3 days on a training course - teaching me how to do my job--- puzzled looks all around - my job consists of breaking things it's brill. I did a lot of this in my last job but they didn't look so happy when I broke stuff. Hey ho never mind- Gary I hope you are reading this!
I'm so excited I'm packed and ready to fly to gay Paris! Or should that be Party Paris? My friend is celebrating her 30th this weekend and we (8 girlies from Scotland/England) are flitting off tomorrow afternoon, sipping Champers, and geting very very tipsy for a whole 2 days and 2 nights. Another mutual friend is showing us the real sights of Paris - it should be fantastic, and I hope to get some good photos to share with you all. Anyway must go and do lots more girly stuff - like paint my nails! Ciao BabesX

I know its been ages since I last wrote in the Blog, but I just couldn't be bothered. I've been so busy the last thing I want to do every night when I get home is to write a diary about my day. So I shall summarise my week instead.

Took my first lesson in wake boarding 2 weeks ago, drank 15 pints of murky water, but i managed to stand up! It was brilliant, arms sore, legs ached but I felt great. Week 2 - managed to stand up and not drink so much murky water. God only knows what speed you are going at at the end of that rope - but we couldn't figure out how i managed to overtake the boat on several occassions! That got scary when the boat had to turn at the end of the lake and I kept going in the same direction - huge collison potential!
Week 3 - sorry of to Paris for the weekend with the girls - so the only sore legs I hope to get are the ones you have after wearing high heels all evening!

Cooking calamities
Oh dear what a frustrating event my baking was this week! A-ha! I thought I would try my hand at making fudge.

Attempt 1
Throw the ingredients into the pan, look cool, stir until sugar melted. Have a beer.
Check pan, find it bubbling to the top, panic and stir like mad.
Test the fudges stiffening capabilities by dropping a little sample of it into glass of water. Does it form a little ball? Well kind of?!?
Put pan in sink of cold water and allow to cool. Have a beer
Has the fudge started to stiffen at base (what does that mean-that sounds rude!)
Ok think so - so whip like mad (kinky this fudge making)
Then toss the lot into greased baking tray and leave to cool. Relax and have a beer

Next morning - stick finger in fudge and find it's runny as snot!

Attempt 2
Same as above but...
boiled it for 5 minutes until the bottom of pan looked a bit browny-black, I think that should do it. Again test it, but this time burn tongue licking the spoon! Ouch!Have a beer to cool tongue.
Throw pan into sink, wait until cool and then beat like mad. Throw into baking tray and have another beer.

Next morning - stick finger in fudge and find that it resembles day old pavement pizza. Cry.

Attempt 3
Same as in attempt 2 - but decide to burn the bottom of the pan. More heat means more cooking - right? mmmm maybe not. Fudge now resembles rather dark sticky mess that looks more like treacle than a lovely golden brown fudge colour.

Maybe I should stick my face into that gooey mess - it might work better as a deep pore cleansing mask rather than a sickly sweet treat!

I GIVE UP - I've been beaten by fudge! I shall stick to the chocolate fudge brownies and carrot cake....

RACE FOR LIFE
It's back on! Date now set for the 27th of June at Bury St Edmonds. So far us girlies have raised about £300 in sponsorship alone, and this will be matched by my company - so that brings the total to £600 - which is fab. Thanks to everyone who has sponsored us X!

Darn, pants and fiddle sticks - just tried to get our Race for Life Team booked and the whole thing is full, only places left are Peterborough on the 16th June or Stamford on the 11th July! Curses! I'm off to eat more cakes or have a girly sulk!

I'm involved in the Race for Life walk on the 4th July in Cambridge and we would love to raise as much money as possible. My company has been kind enough to match any donations made through this donation website -

https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/DataDivas

You can also see a very nice photo of us girls!

Please donate generoulsy as this is for Cancer Research UK - Cancer Research UK receives virtually no funding from the UK government. Fundraising events like Race for Life are vitally important, as they enable us to continue our life-saving work.

Kind regards and many thanks!

caroline

Family Day in Hell
The idea of having a "family day out" sounds really good doesnt it? Reality bites sometimes! After spending a small fortune on tickets and petrol to get to an amusement park we spent the first 4 hours of it soaked to the skin and feeling pretty miserable. Things only turned around after 2 o'clock when it actually stopped raining - dare I pray that the sun come out? IT DID! Such a relief - it actually dried up and we managed to grab a few fun rides and let the kids run about - the day was salvaged! Only narrowly missing a huge traffic jam on the M4 due to an accident that happened it front of us, Drew like the Knight on his silver horse, rode in to save the day - taking control of the situation and making sure the injured were alright, he then blagged it with the firemen there to let us through. Zipping down the M4 when it's completely clear of traffic was fun!

Well another week over and finally, after 3 months of having virtually no money coming in to the bank, I got my first payslip. Pure Heaven. Bills are paid, I'm flush again and we can breathe easier now. I have never been so glad to sit and look at a bit of paper with numbers all over it. Apart from my O Grade Arithmetic paper where I scored 100% - oh yeah baby!

This is a lovely story written by Phoebe (age 7)

The Brave Rabbit

Once apon a time there was a rabbit called Peter Rabbit. He lived whth his mum and dad. They lived in the nice sunny woods. They had lots of frends. Birds and deers and owls and sqirls and of cors Rabbits but none of the animls liked the WOOLFS. Because the woolfs are very very bad so they all stay away from the woolfs.

One day Petter rabbit thought he will triy to scary the woolfs so he went to the darck darck and scary part of the wood with the wind blowing and the woolfs hallwing. Peter was very very scard all the woolds came out but Petter starid to fite and scard the woolfs away from the woods. they had a party to celecrate that all the woolfs were gone. They had something to eat. The birds had some seeds and beris and bred and water to drink and sume nuts. The sqirls had sume nuts and bred and seeds and beris and water. The Rabbits had sume veghtbls and water. The deers had leefs and bark and gras.

They made sume rings and crowns and neclisis and braslits out of flowers. His girlfrind made a medl out of flowers. Peters girlfrind is Rosie.

Peter and Rosie gor married and lived Happly ever after.