Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Tuesday 17th April 2018
Morning!
Well it has taken me a while to be able to write this blog this morning due to this little critter:
She sits on my laptop - or my keyboard when I am on the computer constantly!! Here she is meowing non-stop. I took her with me on a hunt for her sister May...and that did the trick - they are now running riot!
My dad just called me - he is trying to sort out doors for the annex. I thought he was going to get them made by the guy he works for, but it seems he is looking online to buy them. I've already done that and can't get the right dimensions. With the house being listed the planning ppl want them to be all the same proportions as the existing doors and its a pain in the butt!! I'm sure with my dads help we'll get them somehow!
So - the day ahead...need to go out buy something for food later, and I've got to start stripping this wallpaper!! Also need to chase David for the quote on the plumbing and electrics for the whole of the annex. This quote is important - we'll find out if we have enough money or not to do it - or if we have to do some of it and then wait until we have more money!
Laters....
Monday, 16 April 2018
Bedtime catch up
I did everything on my list....almost! Didn't get a builder but found somebody who can make the annex doors! Didn't do any wallpaper removing either...
Went for a run....10km. Was tough as its hilly but I got ahead by 9km on my YVSTY challenge and got my 300km badge!!
Helen was able to track me live via the Mapmyrun app. Trying to persuade her to join me in the Taunton 10km run at the end of September...she's pretending to resist but I know she's up for it as she's already upped her 5km run to 6.2km....muh haha.
Me and Helen - just starting her first (my 2nd) Park Run. She is the slim one - I'm in orange!
Not sure if I can manage another 10km tomorrow...my legs ache. Saying that I'm always amazed how when you wake up in the morning you feel totally recovered.
Upping my distance seems to have an effect on my resting heart rate (according to fitbit) I am now on the cusp of having 'Very good' cardio fitness for my age as opposed to "good'. Nice to know! Think I'm starting to lose weight too...I'll see tomorrow if I've improved from my 8lb loss.
Anyway....until tomorrow....
Monday 16th April
Well yesterday it got to about 6pm, and Andy who had been doing his music stuff in the basement all day, sent me this message:
I am coming up to party like it is Sunday and I got no work tomorrow but I have so lets not mention it :-)
So....we had quite a few games of pool and some drinkies.... Andy managed to spill a whole shot of Fireball (cinnamon whiskey liqueur) over our kittens head (May). I was so worried because it would sting her eyes, be really sticky and if she tried to wash it off she might get the effects of the alcohol. We held her and tried to wash it off with a wet tea towel and dry her off again...but this is a cat we are talking about... About an hour and a few drinks later I checked on her and she was still really sticky and smelling of cinnamon so I tried to be like a cat and lick it off! lol. It was only after I had done that I thought...omg what am I doing!! hehe Think it helped though!
Andy was up and out really early this morning...he is working in Bracknell today.
This week I HAVE to make some progress on the annex. It has been put off the last 2 weeks because of visitors (mum & Dad and then Joanne and Chris).
Today I need to do the following things:
The difficulty comes when I need to do a run but have spent hours stripping wallpaper off and I'm knackered. Actually the difficulty is doing any of it, because I could just sit here and drink coffee.
We'll see later how many of these things I get done!!
I am coming up to party like it is Sunday and I got no work tomorrow but I have so lets not mention it :-)
So....we had quite a few games of pool and some drinkies.... Andy managed to spill a whole shot of Fireball (cinnamon whiskey liqueur) over our kittens head (May). I was so worried because it would sting her eyes, be really sticky and if she tried to wash it off she might get the effects of the alcohol. We held her and tried to wash it off with a wet tea towel and dry her off again...but this is a cat we are talking about... About an hour and a few drinks later I checked on her and she was still really sticky and smelling of cinnamon so I tried to be like a cat and lick it off! lol. It was only after I had done that I thought...omg what am I doing!! hehe Think it helped though!
Andy was up and out really early this morning...he is working in Bracknell today.
This week I HAVE to make some progress on the annex. It has been put off the last 2 weeks because of visitors (mum & Dad and then Joanne and Chris).
Today I need to do the following things:
- Read the instructions and send off a piece of bathroom wall so it can be tested for asbestos
- Continue to get the woodchip wallpaper off the annex bedroom wall
- Annotate pictures of the porch doors with measurements and do the same where we want to put a door in the annex to convince the guy at the listed building planning, that we can fit in the doors that we want
- Find a builder to put in the doorway/door in the annex
- Buy cat biscuits
- Go for a run
- Make dinner for tonight so we don't get take out again!
The difficulty comes when I need to do a run but have spent hours stripping wallpaper off and I'm knackered. Actually the difficulty is doing any of it, because I could just sit here and drink coffee.
We'll see later how many of these things I get done!!
Sunday, 15 April 2018
sunday 15th April cont.
Hi,
Well I know I've already posted on here today but I've just had a chat with my eldest son Adam. He made me laugh properly moaning about his disaster of a fry-up this morning. He was NOT laughing I should add...he said he burnt the sausages, and because his non-stick frying pan is not non-stick anymore he melted butter for the mushrooms, added the mushrooms and the instantly stuck to the pan. Then he had a proper rant about the tesco bacon he got delivered being so thin and rubbish that he could not get the slices out - so he screwed it all up in his hand and threw it in the frying pan! hahah...he also burnt the eggs. Sounds an amazing breakfast eh!
He then spent quite a while telling me about the recipes he's been trying and the things he has been (successfully) cooking, and I thought - wow I'm getting old. My kids are sharing recipes and all domesticated!!
So I then called Connor who I haven't really spoken to since Christmas...I started the call saying Nothing Owned! which is what he used to do to me all the time - I refrained from saying it and then putting the phone down hahaha!
Anyway - he is doing well, but is hating his job, which was only something he got quickly to start getting some money in when he moved to Southampton (in a warehouse). He is struggling because he doesn't know what to do with his life. He is a chef by trade but hates the unsocial hours. He lives with Emily who is doing a Master Degree (and she hasn't started her dissertation yet! that stresses me out! lol). When she finishes in August they are looking to move again - either to Cardiff where her parents live or Bristol - that'll be good because they'll be closer to us. I miss Connor loads - I see him the least because he doesn't drive and is always skint.
So then me and Lissa had a chat...about the blog as she has started on (lilbeetroot.blogspot) I guess she has picked that name because she is so little and as soon as the sun comes out she looks like a beetroot lol. I kept trying to tell her stuff and she was like...yeah I read that on your blog lol.
Then...Adam called back as he wanted to tell me that Spyro and Crash bandicoot is out on the playstation - and I used to play that loads! He might be coming over next Monday/Tuesday with Erika so that'll be cool.
So all I have done all day is talk to the kids and write this blog! Its now 3.30pm - I am feeling very lazy! Andy is down in his studio, doing his music stuff so he's happy! Andy and Paul used to be in a band and do all sorts of music stuff together and that stopped for years because Helen and Paul moved to Devon and we were in Surrey - but now we are closer they have started it again. Great to hear them back together again.
I'd better stop writing because I could go on forever....
Well I know I've already posted on here today but I've just had a chat with my eldest son Adam. He made me laugh properly moaning about his disaster of a fry-up this morning. He was NOT laughing I should add...he said he burnt the sausages, and because his non-stick frying pan is not non-stick anymore he melted butter for the mushrooms, added the mushrooms and the instantly stuck to the pan. Then he had a proper rant about the tesco bacon he got delivered being so thin and rubbish that he could not get the slices out - so he screwed it all up in his hand and threw it in the frying pan! hahah...he also burnt the eggs. Sounds an amazing breakfast eh!
He then spent quite a while telling me about the recipes he's been trying and the things he has been (successfully) cooking, and I thought - wow I'm getting old. My kids are sharing recipes and all domesticated!!
So I then called Connor who I haven't really spoken to since Christmas...I started the call saying Nothing Owned! which is what he used to do to me all the time - I refrained from saying it and then putting the phone down hahaha!
Anyway - he is doing well, but is hating his job, which was only something he got quickly to start getting some money in when he moved to Southampton (in a warehouse). He is struggling because he doesn't know what to do with his life. He is a chef by trade but hates the unsocial hours. He lives with Emily who is doing a Master Degree (and she hasn't started her dissertation yet! that stresses me out! lol). When she finishes in August they are looking to move again - either to Cardiff where her parents live or Bristol - that'll be good because they'll be closer to us. I miss Connor loads - I see him the least because he doesn't drive and is always skint.
So then me and Lissa had a chat...about the blog as she has started on (lilbeetroot.blogspot) I guess she has picked that name because she is so little and as soon as the sun comes out she looks like a beetroot lol. I kept trying to tell her stuff and she was like...yeah I read that on your blog lol.
Then...Adam called back as he wanted to tell me that Spyro and Crash bandicoot is out on the playstation - and I used to play that loads! He might be coming over next Monday/Tuesday with Erika so that'll be cool.
So all I have done all day is talk to the kids and write this blog! Its now 3.30pm - I am feeling very lazy! Andy is down in his studio, doing his music stuff so he's happy! Andy and Paul used to be in a band and do all sorts of music stuff together and that stopped for years because Helen and Paul moved to Devon and we were in Surrey - but now we are closer they have started it again. Great to hear them back together again.
I'd better stop writing because I could go on forever....
House Renovations
I wanted to show on here some of the things we have done with the house, and continue to do so as we do more. So below shows the journey that we went on with the kitchen!!
Here is a before picture...this is from before we moved in. This is how we saw it right up until we moved in, with a projector on the ceiling, and white boards on the wall and the awful office lights.
I then had to fill the holes in the ceiling from the office lights, paint the ceiling and paint the walls. In was a major pain in the butt....but THEN IT WAS DONE!!! If you compare this to the original office picture it is actually amazing what we achieved!
Here is a before picture...this is from before we moved in. This is how we saw it right up until we moved in, with a projector on the ceiling, and white boards on the wall and the awful office lights.
We obviously spent a long time deciding how we were going to do the kitchen, and originally it was supposed to be at the garden end of the room but we couldn't get the waste pipes out, so we had to flip it and put it in on the opposite side of the room. Getting all the water pipes, waste, electrics and everything in here was a pain and involved many discussions with the plumber/electrician. In the end we had to try and go under the panels, we had to run electrics to the island and across the room by making troughs in the concrete floor...
The office lights were a pain - left big holes in the ceiling. We put in spot lights and lights to run over the island.
The actual kitchen going in was so exciting. It was a Magnet kitchen and the design had been many months in the making. The cabinets went in but the quartz had to wait. The pic below is from when then came to do the template for the quartz. We were so excited just to see the template as it gave us some idea of what the kitchen would look like with worktops rather than looking at empty cabinets.
And then... the kitchen was in - but ceiling, floor and paining had not been done yet. We moved in and used the kitchen like this for quite a while before the rest of it was finished.
The decision on the flooring was probably one of the most difficult decisions to make. I wanted solid wood, but then we were told that it would expand and contract and wouldn't do well with water spills...we went to laminate with a thick solid top on it, but it seems to scratch easily. Eventually decided on Amtico but which one...dark wood...oak? I kept coming back to the dark wood and now its in...I don't question whether it was the right decision or not because it's too late now!
I then had to fill the holes in the ceiling from the office lights, paint the ceiling and paint the walls. In was a major pain in the butt....but THEN IT WAS DONE!!! If you compare this to the original office picture it is actually amazing what we achieved!
This is a picture from magnet - this is how we perceived the kitchen to look before we started - its at the other end of the kitchen and so was flipped around - but I think it is a pretty accurate picture of our end result! (it is from a different angle however)
Sunday 15th April
Morning!
Well I had a late night binge watching a new series called Lost in Space - a remake of an old series from the 1960's. Then in the night the kittens came in and Mercky snuggled up right under my neck for a bit purring which was lovely! Then they both decided to run riot so I ended up chucking em out so I could get more sleep!
When I did get up I was faced with Mercky walking around the kitchen dragging her butt on the floor, wiping poo everywhere!! Thought only dogs did that!! I ended up wiping her butt for her and cleaning it up!! Nice start to the day!!
Really pleased with my run yesterday - I managed the 10km which put me at just under 5km ahead on my YVSTY challenge. I can even afford a day off today :-)
Andy is still in bed. I don't mind that at all - he has to get up so early for work all week, it is nice that he catches up a bit at the weekend. It is 11.26am so I might wake him up with a bacon sandwich at 12.
Lost 1lb today - makes my total 8lb. That sounds alright until you realise that it has taken me since 2nd Jan to lose that! I actually lost 8lb ages ago - then put it on, then lost it etc. etc. Around Christmas time I was the heaviest i'd EVER been and I think I still am. I hate it - makes me look really old and frumpy. However, if you read back to my posts from 2010/2011 you will see that I haven't changed at all. I diet and exercise, then drink and eat. I do well then sabotage it. One day I'll get some real discipline. Wasn't last night though because we had take-out burger (A new place called Moody Burgers - amazing!) and if I am honest - we had it the night before too!!! So yeah - I'm crap and it is a good job I burn so many calories running or I'd truly be Jabba the hut.
Andy just got up - guess he missed out on the breakfast in bed!!
Until laters....
Well I had a late night binge watching a new series called Lost in Space - a remake of an old series from the 1960's. Then in the night the kittens came in and Mercky snuggled up right under my neck for a bit purring which was lovely! Then they both decided to run riot so I ended up chucking em out so I could get more sleep!
When I did get up I was faced with Mercky walking around the kitchen dragging her butt on the floor, wiping poo everywhere!! Thought only dogs did that!! I ended up wiping her butt for her and cleaning it up!! Nice start to the day!!
Really pleased with my run yesterday - I managed the 10km which put me at just under 5km ahead on my YVSTY challenge. I can even afford a day off today :-)
Andy is still in bed. I don't mind that at all - he has to get up so early for work all week, it is nice that he catches up a bit at the weekend. It is 11.26am so I might wake him up with a bacon sandwich at 12.
Lost 1lb today - makes my total 8lb. That sounds alright until you realise that it has taken me since 2nd Jan to lose that! I actually lost 8lb ages ago - then put it on, then lost it etc. etc. Around Christmas time I was the heaviest i'd EVER been and I think I still am. I hate it - makes me look really old and frumpy. However, if you read back to my posts from 2010/2011 you will see that I haven't changed at all. I diet and exercise, then drink and eat. I do well then sabotage it. One day I'll get some real discipline. Wasn't last night though because we had take-out burger (A new place called Moody Burgers - amazing!) and if I am honest - we had it the night before too!!! So yeah - I'm crap and it is a good job I burn so many calories running or I'd truly be Jabba the hut.
Andy just got up - guess he missed out on the breakfast in bed!!
Until laters....
Saturday, 14 April 2018
Sat 14th April 2018
The weekend!
All I have done today is contemplate going out for a run. I've decided to write this and then go for a 10km run...
On new years eve, at Helen and Pauls we wrote some new years resolutions - one of them was that me and Helen would do the 5km park run by the end of March. I did it on 24th March and Helen left it to the very last opportunity on 31st. She was so funny!! I had warned her about the Taunton park run - an extremely muddy section and massive puddles that you cant avoid - more like running in a shallow river. Afterwards she was so mad! THAT WAS NOT A RUN IT WAS AN OBSTACLE COURSE! and That was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life!! she was proper stroppy about it and all I could do was laugh!. It was true though, it wasn't easy - it was not a straightforward run at all - but we did it!!
Here is Helen - doing the hardest thing she has ever done in her life!!
This will be the third year I have attempted the You vs the Year running challenge, which is 1018km in a year. I've never even got half way through in previous years - I ended up with frozen shoulder, or other injury or life in general just got in the way. This year I am determined!! I was ahead earlier in the year - then I did my back in and got behind. I have finally caught up - and 10km today will put me ahead! I've only done a full 10km on one previous occasion (last week), so I am a bit nervous about doing it again!
At the beginning of this year I could only manage 5km by doing a couple of minutes running - then a minute walking - it took me 50 minutes, so I have improved quite a bit.
So apart from putting off this run and worrying about it - I have been putting some stuff together about the history of the house we bought - and putting together some before and after pics. I'll put these up soon! It has not been easy because the kittens, Mercky and May (named after Freddie Mercury and Brian May from Queen) constantly want to walk on my keyboard or chase things on my monitor - which is touch screen.
Okay - I'll put some house stuff up later - I'm going to peel the cats off me and get ready....
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