My back has been unbearable these past few days. Fortunately today it seems a bit better. At least I can sit and stand without pain for a while. Going to go to Occupational Health on Monday afternoon and have finally filled in the incident form from when I hurt my back two months ago. Not sure what Health and Safety team will think of it! LOL. Oh well, my manager told me to fill it in.

Went to see Time Traveller's wife yesterday. It was pretty good. I certainly enjoyed it and didnt remember the ending until near the end. I didnt remember the daughter at all, so that was nice to watch that bit. Bless Alice, she loves these love stories so we had an enjoyable evening together at the cinema. Told her all about my first love, she reckons that is the first time she has heard me tell her about it. I guess I don't really talk a great deal to her about stuff. She has absolutely no idea what sort of person I was as a teenager. Hopefully when things get back into a routine we can spend more time together and get to chat more.

It feels like we are in limbo at home at the moment. With Sarah gone, the house is most definetly quieter. Sev is always out and Alice is either sleeping or on the computer. It seems like we are kind of waiting for Sev to go off to the Navy and Alice to go back to college. It has been a very long summer. Shame it hasn't been lovely Portugal type weather so we can enjoy it more.

Sev's Navy thing is really dragging on. First he wanted to go in as a rating, then cos he did so well in the aptitude test they felt he should try for officer. He went for one interview, it was for ratings so they said come back another day. He went for the officer interview and they felt he hadn't had enough experience as he has not worked, is not a captain of a team or anything at all. So he decided to give up on that and go back to being a rating. He has an interview for rating on Wednesday. However, in the meantime the outcome of the officer interview is that they put him forward for a leadership course in mid September. Now does he still get to do that course if he is going down the rating route? Hopefully they will be able to tell us on Wednesday. Not sure whether to call them up first and explain what has happened or wait until then. I just want him to join up so he has some structure to his life. It looks like he wont make the September intake now. So that is another four months that he will be hanging around doing nothing. No work, no driving lessons. ARGHHH, how annoying. But time passes and I am sure it will all work out eventually.

new kitchen

My list of 101 things to do in 1001 days is starting to look good, getting loads of crossed off items now. The ones I am most pleased about are the kitchen related ones. We finally have a new fitted kitchen. I have never had one, so am very very excited and so pleased to have such a lovely kitchen. Just today we have had the vinyl flooring laid through the dining room and kitchen so now it is completed. YAY.

I think I may need to add some more things to my list because I don't actually have 101 things as yet! LOL.

Favourite things at the moment are geocaching and facebook farm and zoo. And typing maniac on facebook. I checked my typing speed yesterday on the internet and it is 80wpm. WOW. I am really loving geocaching though. I am going to go to a "meet" in London where the founder of the geocaching website is visiting from America. It will be a great chance to meet up with others who like the challenge and fun of geocaching. Needless to say Andy wont be coming as he really isnt in to it at all.

Sarah and I went to visit mum with Alice in Clacton and left Alice with my mum to go shopping. They had fun, Alice got some fancy welly boots, wish they were my size! Sarah and I went off geocaching. There are only four in the area, three easy ones and one with a tricky puzzle to work out. We thought we had got the puzzle finally. Sarah and I spent ages trying to break the code, only to find out it was dead easy once you were on site. We did actually get the right co-ordinates and were searching in the right area, but because we couldn't find it we started searching elsewhere. Two hours later, bladders bursting and tummies empty we went back to mum's for a break. Afterwards we brought my baby brother James and Alice with us to go find the tricky cache and the two easy ones. We found one quick easy one on the way back earlier. It still took quite a while, but we were surer of our co-ordinates this time and looked harder. It took all four of us a good 30-60 minutes to find. The cache, a small tupperware box with some goodies, was very well hidden, so we were delighted when we found it. I found this one, Sarah had found the easy one earlier and then we went on to find the other two easy ones. James found one and Alice found one. So everyone was happy. Now I have two trackable geocoins to take with me to London to pass on to others. One of the geocoins wants to go east, so I will need to find someone going on holiday abroad.

Next week is a big week for Sev. He has yet another Navy interview on Wednesday followed by his AS level results on Thursday. I don't think he is too bothered about the results as it wont affect him going in to the Navy. Alice gets her results the week after. Sarah is in Devon with Ashly and his mum and dad. I think they hope to go hiking and climbing a lot. I have no idea WHERE in Devon she is! LOL I hope she has a great time before coming back to the drudgery of work, work and more work.

Sarah has decided to change from Chemistry to Maths and will be starting from Year One again in September. I just hope she enjoys this more. Missing her loads, always wish we had more time for cuddles and getting close, but just never seem to manage it. I don't think she had a good time at home this time round with her friends giving her grief and it being a bit boring for her. At least we did one day's worth of geocaching. She is the only one that actually enjoys the challenge as much as me.

Starting to feel better

Starting to feel a bit better. My back has improved hugely, although I have to still be careful not to walk too far or overdo it. Ever since I had to give up my allotment I have been feeling quite down. The weather has been pretty poor as well so that has not helped, but am feeling a little bit better today.

Good news is that we have had our new kitchen fitted. I am really pleased with it. We just need to do the painting and lay the flooring. YAY

It is a lovely day today so we might go and eat out to enjoy it whilst we have it.

back ache

Being in pain really is not very good fun. Since I had a great time doing the team building activity day two weeks ago, my back has been very painful. At first I thought I had pulled a muscle in my back, something I have done often. But two weeks later I am still in pain and getting pretty fed up. This is different to what I normally suffer. The pain is very low in my back, around the coccyx region; I guess it is similar to when I fell down on my bottom about 20 years when I fell down some stairs. That took months to get better. Two weeks later it still hurts to sit for more than 20 mins and walking is difficult. You should see me getting out of bed in the morning, I'm like an old lady, having to lean on everything and shuffle slowly, even though my bladder is bursting.

I just hope with some rest and gentle exercise things will start to improve.

UK Art fest

we all took a piece of jigsaw and "altered it" to make one whole jigsaw


Here we are learning how to make dottess, being taught by Marina

courdroy cat trying to get to grips with learning to crochet

Elizabeth showing us how to crochet

Me poring over the needle and wool starting my crochet

I set off to Cheshire for a weekend with other crafters who I had "met" through the ATCs for all forum. We had a great time, chatting mostly, but we did spend the whole of Saturday making ATCS and learning/teaching each other new crafts. i learnt that you can make original stamps using cheap Tesco rubbers, I learnt how to crochet and how to make a dottee doll. We are definetly going to do it again, this time in Scotland. A lot of the Americans were interested in going to Scotland and having this Artfest weekend as part of their trip, so I think the numbers will have increased by then. Elizabeth and Margeux, our two Scottish lasses, are going to organise that one. Here are some photos of the weekend.

goodbye allotment

Am pretty upset today as have had to give up my allotment. I loved going there as it was so nice to work away listening to the birds and other people toiling over the soil. I am just in too much pain all the time that I just cannot cope with it. I have been trying for the past year to get someone to help me but no luck there, so today I handed in my keys. I burst into tears, how embarrasing. Woah that is spooky, as I was writing this I got a phone call from the allotment people to say that they would save the potatoes that I put in for me. And they found some secateurs that Sarah bought me that I thought I had lost. Oh how sweet of them. I think I shall mourn the loss of the peace and quiet the allotment allowed me. But I guess I really must now sort out the aches and pains that I suffer with. This can't go on. Having to give up my hobbies because of the pain is not good news at all. But I bet you anything the docs say there is nothing that can be done as there is probably nothing much wrong. BIG SIGH.

busy busy

Phew what a busy few weeks it has been. I went to Stubbers (web page www.stubbers.co.uk/)yesterday as part of a team building day for my ILM 5 Leadership and Managment course. It was really great fun. The staff were fanastic and everyone who was there had a great time and worked really well together. I was in a team of 7, Lisa, Ali, Sarah, Jessie, Diane, Natasha and me.

This is a picture of the whole of the ILM 5 just after the raft race.

Our first task was to try to cross a pond by using ropes and two logs. It took us a while to figure out what to do with all the available equipment, but we got there in the end and we all managed to get across safely without getting wet. Once on the other side of the pond we all pulled on the rope to get the next person across, so by the last person there were six of us pulling and she went really really fast along the rope across the pond. It was really cool.

The second task was to build a tower out of milk crates, as high as we could with two people standing at the top. It was really great fun. Again it took us a while to figure out the best plan but when we got it set up we really whizzed along. Natasha had a great time at the top. We managed a height of 21 crates, but the next team managed 25. Still we were pleased with our achievement.

We had a very well earned lunch break and then went on to a third task which involved moving along tightrope wires using ropes to help us and getting across from one platform to another. Then we had to balance ourselves on a large seesaw. Then finally we had to get each person in the team through a spider's web made of rope. That required a lot of trust in each other as we had to lift a few people and guide a few people through.

The final task involved all three groups racing to make a raft out of empty barrels and poles and ropes. We were offered an optimal design and went with that. I learnt how to tie a great knot. Just need to practise it otherwise I will forget how to do it. We all finished making the rafts and went into the water at the same time. We had to get to a platform in the middle of the lake and rescue our "damsel in distress" and row like crazy to a buoy, touch it and turn back. We were well in the lead the whole way. It was really exhausting and my arms still ache from rowing so hard, but our team got back first. But the race wasn't over, we had to untie it all and put it all back neatly. It was a great laugh and we finished well ahead of the other two teams. Several people got very wet but I think everyone had a great time. That was the end of the day and we all finished on a high. Fortunately the weather was really good, sunny with some cloud, so it was not too hot or too cold.

WE WON THE RAFT RACE! YAY