phlegm

Sorry to be gross but that pretty much sums up my existence right now. I'm all about coughing, and it KILLS! I feel like my windpipe is the circumference of a pin head. I will NEVER take my good health for granted again.

AND I was supposed to go see Dave Matthews in Manchester tomorrow AND there's Sarah and Stoff's wedding on Saturday. I do not have time to be ill for crying out loud.

Daytime tv could be used as a form of torture....

I'm in a bad mood.

Ready for a rant....??

Ok, so I'm glad that this little boy Connor McCreaddie gets to stay with his family and not be taken into care, because I really do think it's for the best. However, I find it confusing that all the media attention has focused on how Social Services are having to intervene. What about the mother's culpability in this whole debacle?! I watched 'Tonight with Trevor Macdonald' on Monday evening and OMIGOODNESS the mother is appalling! ABSOLUTELY APPALLING! That may sound like judgement - and yes, I hold my hands up, I do judge her! I think there is a wider issue here that is perfectly illustrated by this story, which is the attitude and mentality of certain types of people in this country that see it as their God-given human right to sit back and expect the local authority to intervene. And these are, unfortunately, usually the sort of people who don't contribute anything to society, don't pay any taxes, live on benefits and EXPECT that the local authority provide for them. GAH this gets my goat! It becomes a vicious circle.This mother said on national television that she felt it was the responsibility of the local authority to sort out the issue of Connor's weight and overreating. WHAT ABOUT HER RESPONSIBILITY!? She said something like 'if I didn't love Connor and was abusing him, he'd be skinny and under fed' - so what? she's over feeding him because she loves him?? THAT is abusive in my opinion! I do think that eventually we will see obesity become categorised as abuse, perhaps not wilful or intentional abuse, but abuse by neglecting to provide healthy meals for the child. This is about education. This mother needs to pull her socks up and learn to cook, get out of bed in the morning, stop playing the 'i'm so depressed' card and set a bloody example for her 8 year old son who weighs 15 stone!!

A miracle...

I am off work at the mo because I have a stupid chest infection. I am NOT happy and feeling very sorry for myself, which is unusual because normally when I am ill I just get on with it (It's a girl thing). But this time I am really poorly - blame Lucy Kennaugh!

Anyhoo, the reason I'm writing is because I spent Monday on the sofa watching TV classics such as 'Jeremy Kyle' (good grief!), and I'd put a vase of daffodils on the coffee table on Sunday to brighten the room up and remind myself that Spring is on the way. The vase was a little bit in the way of my dreadful television viewing so I kinda had my eye on the daffs all day...Throughout the course of the day I found myself drawn to look at them and each time I looked I realised that one flower had blossomed over the day, right before my eyes! How amazing is that, that's like a miracle to me, how does it happen? how does the flower know? I've been buzzing off it ever since!

This weekend I am mostly...

*Happy that my lovely friends Keri and Paul are enjoying their brand spanking new house. Happy new home you guys!

*Loving the new Sophie Kinsella 'Shopaholic' book.

*Tidying, dusting, hoovering, polishing and cleaning...apparently I DO have Monica tendencies.

*Liking the fact that I have had my nails done and therefore can type at speed and not make heinous errors in my work emails.

*Feeling smug at having swum 60 lengths in 45 minutes today.

*Enjoying the solitude of Portland Gate, Ricardo is on a Stag do.

*Loving Cheshire Oaks. I played Personal Shopper to my gorgeous hubby and GAP'd him up to the eyeballs outlet stylee - he was proper strutting up and down the changing room!

* Feeling glad for Abigail and Christopher as they have successfully moved house.

*Browsing for new houses on t'internet. Mortgage calculators are confusing!

*Watching Friends reruns and STILL laughing my head off, in spite of being word perfect on the script.

*Buzzing that 50ml of Martini plus slimline tonic = a proper drink BUT only half a WW point!WOO!

*Worrying about Britney's apparent downward spiral into mental ill health.

* Sad because my good friend Anna lost her daddy to the evil that is cancer, as did my good friend Tiff. This is devastating to the nth degree. I hate feeling helpless and I hate that people I love are suffering.

*Considering making some cookies, but my hands are soooooooooooo burned at random intervals I look like a self harmer - is it worth it for cranberry/almond cookies?

That's all folks...the pic is Abbi, Hannah and I at New Year's! Cute, huh?!

Lenten

Happy first day of Lent! I've set myself a challenge this year, to rediscover this season and what it really means for me. Check out this blog http://mustardseedjourney.wordpress.com/ and http://mustardseedjourney.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/a-journey-into-wholeness-lenten-series.pdf Can't remember how I came across it - maybes the 24-7 website? But anyways, I think this stuff is cool. So far I've learnt that Lent is not about sacrifice or deprivation, and in the early church it was seen as a time of preparation for those about to be baptised - very cool. I've always associated it with the classic giving up of chocolate or crisps, or spent it worrying about people who were giving up eating for 40 days and nights....who could forget Caleb living on milk during the Langdale road era!? But actually it's a time of preparation, working towards something - and that something is pretty darn spectacular - you might say the ultimate goal, namely Jesus' death and resurrection. I believe this happened, I live my life a certain way, I belong to God, but Lent - for me, even when I decided to become a Christian - has always been the tokenistic vibe of self-deprivation of something that's not actually that difficult to go without and basically a pseudo-virtuous 'Oh I'm not eating chocolate for God blah blah blah bobbins' but really it's about (a) being on a diet and (b) the cleansing of the system before the onslaught of choco-mania that is Easter Day. I am shocked at my admission of this but nonotheless it's true - I feel appalled that I am utterly subscribed to the crappy view of Easter and the run up to it.....so I'm changing it. I know what I should do too, I should get a group of people together once a week for the next 6 weeks to go through this journey juntos, to prepare us for the most important time of year (or is that Christmas?? Chicken or egg really innit!!) - but I'm SCARED! Plus I'm lazy and don't want to have to lead it BUT somehow I know that this won't be half as much fun, struggle, laugh, challenge, ass-whup etc etc without the people I love.

Note to self: strap on a pair!!!

Ps. 51 vs. 10 - 16

WHAT the %&*£! ???????

I am SERIOUSLY worried about Brit. WTF is she doin?!

Friday Feeling

Hi people,
I'm off today, so am showing off by blogging in the day time (I know, I know, the clock's all weirdy on my blog but I dunno how to change it!!) It's 11am, I'm in my jammies, drinking tea, watching Oprah and blogging. GAH! I LOVE being off when everyone else is at work. It's bizarre really, but a day off when you should be at work seems somehow more precious than a weekend day off. Or is that just me?! Hmm....

Well, the weekend draws on apace and with it more than the usual plethora of F-U-N! My beloved husband is off to that London for the weekend with Tranmere Alliance kids for their half term trip sooooooo I get to play in my house all by myself for the weekend.....makes me think of the episode of Friends, where Rachel's in her and Monica's flat all alone....."I'm in my apartment, and I'm naked..." haha. (Don't worry, I'll keep the blinds closed HAHA!)

Tonight will involve pink wine (a nice white Zinfandel methinks), a lovely piece of salmon (which I can eat coz Rich isn't here), Green & Blacks 85% cocoa organic chocolate (from my Valentine)and HOLLYWOOD WEEK OF AMERICAN IDOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GAH! What a crackin night! I am well excited!

Then, Saturday I shall spend a leisurely few hours dans la Gym and then a classy night of sophistication that is Sarah Hayes' Hen Do! We will commence with a few drinks at Alma de Cuba (http://www.alma-de-cuba.com) and then onto Il Forno (http://www.ilforno.co.uk) for dinner. Should be a cracking night, pictures to follow.

This week has been a busy one, sorry for the lack of blogness:we had a fun Valentine's which involved a trip to the Alam Balti for dinner complete with pink champagne and vintage champagne saucers....haha we are sooooooooooooooo classy! Good fun, though I ate FAR too much chocolate indeed. Hey ho, you only live once.

On Tuesday I got to see some of the fruits of my labours, or rather tha labours of the team I work with. We held the Annual Looked After Children's Achievement Awards at the Town Hall. The way it works is the young people are nominated by professionals such as Social Workers, Teachers, Foster Carers, Residential Care Staff, me for example, and every child who is nominated receives an award. The nominations can be for anything that the particular young person has achieved and they receive a certificate and a gift voucher and get to be part of an official awards ceremony - which we tailored very much to the young people, complete with helium balloons and Hersheys kisses on every table, a ridiculous amount of crisps and juice and a lot of pomp and circumstance!! It was fabulous! A lot of the young people who were there I've worked with and it was so, so nice to see them buzzing of being guests of honour for something positive rather than the usual circumstances I see them in, ie- when they're complaining that stuff's not right! (and often quite rightly so, I might add!!) Cheesy to say, but kind of reminded me why I love my job so much and why I do it. Although - If one more set of parents or foster carers had said to me 'Oooh you're a lot younger than we thought you were/sounded on the phone etc', I would have had a full on hissy fit! GAH! Anyways, a crackin' night.....especially in light of recent stats published by Unicef (See Anna's blog).

Anyways, I'm off now to enjoy some more coffee (Bean Around the World, no less) and 'This Morning'...oh bloody hell! Fern and Phil aren't on it this week...DAMMIT!

Happy weekend my lovelies xxXXxxXXxx

Ring the Changes

Hey y'all! Like the noveau image? Pretty darn good hey? AND I FIGURED OUT HOW TO DO LINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!! I thought it was time to get with the programme and do that switchy thang you've all been doing.....So - Abbers, Hann, feedback please. Can you still see it even without a log in? Espero que si!

It's Sunday afternoon and I have been in my Primark Pyjamas since 6pm on Friday. Time to go get showered and dressed I think! Haha I am sooooooooo lazy. Gonna put in some gym time avec La Beev methinks.

Loving you all...

Moi xxxx

W(hat) A G(iggle) !!!

Hi everyone!! Sorry for the delay! Over a week now since I've blogged - standards sure are slipping! My main excuse for such blog-tardiness is that I have been super-busy catching up with people!! And that is my reason for writing now...On Tuesday I got to hang out with Paul Trevor and Cate Thornton!!! AARRRRRRRRGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!! It was soooooooo amazing to see them! Trev was 'oop north' on official WAG business, so not only did I get to see him AND Cate, Trev also had a surprise...HE BROUGHT THE WAG-MOBILE!!

WOOT WOOT!!!!!!!!!!! Check out the pics!!

Paul, Cate my lovely friends, thanks so much for coming over to the Wizza, and for being so fabulous. You are true legends.