Just an average Tuesday...

Hi again,

So last time I blogged I was about to go to the dentist! I went...was sedated - and I'm very relieved to say that the sedation worked a treat! No memory of any treatment - just a filling was needed! However...that was 6 days ago and my mouth is so sore!! Been having salt water mouth washes today...

Friday evening Lissa arrived! We jumped straight into party mode - playing pool and having a laugh - for some reason I remained sober but Lissa and Andy were quite drunk!! I was glad I'd not drank too much Saturday morning - but those two were suffering a bit!

Me and Lissa then went off to the Spa - I'd left it too late to add a treatment in - so we just had access to the jacuzzi, steam room and sauna - which was actually perfect because we flitted from one to the other and had lots of opportunity to catch up!  This ended with a cream tea (or coffee) which was very nice!  Saturday evening we took it easy and chilled whilst watching a film - and Sunday we barely moved off the couch!

I'm hoping to book something else for me and Lissa - maybe close to her so I'll make the journey this time. 

Today I joined Weight Watchers online (for £1) so....lets see if for the first time in AGES I can manage to stick to a diet! I'm currently 12 stone!!! ouch!! That might not be too bad if I was 6'4" but unfortunately I am 5'3" - I really want to give it a good go - we are approaching summer and I have lots of nice clothes I cannot fit into - I don't have unrealistic goals - I'm aiming for 10 1/2 stone.  I need to get into the gym again - although I still cant run as I have planter fasciitis in my foot.  I am going into the gym soon - just a bit of exercise bike and I am going to start a 30 day yoga thingy Lissa suggested.

Lissa is very good to chat to about diet and exercise! She's the only person I know who gets as obsessed as me - although she is barely 8 stone! Maybe she is the person I should take advice off! lol.  I'm proud she does so well, because I think I was the person that got her into fitness and exercise in the first place - I just didn't keep it up!!

So - the airbnb - we got a BRILLIANT review from our first guest! She went to so much effort it looks like we paid her or wrote it ourselves! lol  We have had 6 bookings now...so it seems to be working!

Okay - I'm off to browse for a spa me and Lissa can go to and then I'll drag my lard-arse into the gym!
xx

stuff....airbnb...dentist

Hi,

So our first guest left early - but only because her husband was discharged from hospital early - she sent me a lovely message though; "I'm sorry to leave the annex. Its a brilliant place to stay and has made a difficult time much easier than it might have been.  Thanks so much for opening it up early for me"

That made me feel good!!  Its not just about making money - I want people to come and enjoy it! I want people to enjoy the house (like we do) and find it comfortable and enjoy all the little extras we put in!  We put in - toiletries, and face wipes, and wine and bread and milk - couple of eggs etc. We found when we were airbnb'ing the little extras - like salt and pepper, oil etc. go a long way to making life easier.

Was a little weird though - not having access to the part of the house I've spent so much time working on recently! and worrying - I was worried when our guest didn't come back till late (because her husband was in hospital), and worrying that everything is working, its warm enough etc. I expect that will lessen over time however....

I am trying to educate myself on twitter, instagram etc. to try and promote the airbnb - Andy has just tried to explain to me how some people use these things - I have a basic understanding and have used these platforms a few times - but I really want to get more involved and try and keep up with everything - so thats my task today until.....

Dentist later and I'm phobic - so have to have sedation otherwise I can't go through with it - I've tried and ended up sobbing in the dentist - with a very unsympathetic dentist too - so I walked out even though I was in agony!  Later I'm having a filling, possibly a root filling, possibly the tooth will come out.  Either way - not happy and just wanna get it over with! Once its over....

Lissa is visiting this weekend! She'll be here tomorrow night - then Saturday we have a spa thingy - so that will be awesome - give us time to chill and chat and catch up and just spend time with each other which I love because I managed to make a lovely person! I take all the credit for the amazing person she turned out to be lol....and Adam and Connor of course - but their not girls!

Okay - I'm to tweet lol

Annex/Airbnb is up and running!

Hi!

Well....we did it! Our first guest arrived yesterday! I had to work solidly to get it finished - including weekends with Andy helping!  It didn't seem like we had much to finish but we did! lol.

Jane is our first guest and her husband is quite ill at the local hospital, so I hope he's going to be okay!  So the things that went not so well....I had just finished showing her around and we walked back to her car and some bloke cycled into the driveway - looking very dodgy and nervous when he saw us standing there.  He looked quite like a bloke we saw before (and nick-named Kev, after he looked like a dodgy bloke selling phones etc.)....so I am hoping that didn't make her feel unsafe.  Then I remembered that we had borrowed all the coat hangers when Bev stayed last week....then this morning I remembered we had also borrowed the clothes rack...and to top it off she messaged me this morning saying that the loo seat had broken!

She is aware that she is our first guest so hopefully she will cut us some slack and give us a good review!

Its a milestone getting the annex finished! We have bits and bobs to improve on - we want to sort out a different entrance to the annex - sort out the garden....paint a few more things...but we'll get there and then hopefully it wont be too much work maintaining it.

I actually hired a cleaner!  She works hard and moves all our stuff about lol....but it makes my life easier - I just can't cope working on the house and cleaning it all...

Here is a link to our airbnb....

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/27195442?

The living room has been changed a little since the pictures were taken - the TV is now on the wall and there is a wall fire too....

So, my plan was to have a day off today and rest my very painful foot - but now I need to go buy a loo seat and fix it!

So in the last few weeks we have had Joanne and family visit, and bev & Tony visited too (not all at the same time).  It was the first time Bev has visited and we haven't been as close as we once were for a while too, so it was awesome that she made the effort to come and visit.

Anyway - better go and buy a loo seat!

Been busy....

Hi,

So it is now April! Wow how fast time goes....  I thought rather than try and catch up with stuff - I'd just jump in with where I am now

I have been working on the annex - so many things needed doing! I have now finished the bathroom fully - having had to take the bath apart and fix and leak (overflow - was overflowing right through the light fixings in the gym below)...

The living room and dining room are done - I have a list of things to get finished - today I'm painting the downstairs hallway, now that I've removed the firebell, trunking and cabling and other random stuff that was attached to the walls.  Only smaller finishing off jobs are left now...it feels never ending however...

The place is now up on airbnb and our first guest is coming on 22nd April for 4 days - and we have somebody booked in for 2 nights at the end of May.  Very nervous about this - because I want everything to be perfect! Jobs I have left - are things like - make sure all kitchen utensils are there - and relevant, sort out bedding, buy a new mattress etc.  The budget money has run out (£400 left) so, we are having to cut back on all spending so that we can build some money up from our monthly income.  The income from the annex is going to be low to start with - they offer ppl 20% off on the first 3 bookings.  We NEED excellent reviews from these bookings!!! eeekkkkkk......

I am wondering just how much work the annex will end up being if it ends up fairly busy....I don't want to get anything wrong!

In other news, my friend Yvonne has had a gastric bypass operation - so it is going to be fun and exciting seeing her transformation!

I need a filling, and had to find a new dentist that does sedation...having the sedation during the time our very first guest is going to be here!! BAD timing.....

The kids surprised me for mothers day and turned up - which was awesome! we got good weather and spent the day playing Smite in the garden - as well as two party nights - was knackered once they had gone home! lol.

anyway - cats are making it difficult for me to type now as they want to walk on keyboard....and I have the awful sound of a bird slowly struggling for life in my chimney breast...its awful - we cant get to it and had to listen to it all night last night - thought it would be dead now but the poor thing still struggling.....

sorry should not end on a bad note....errr......I'm off to paint......

The Patton's - Family Crest

I know that the Patton family lived in our house for about 70 years - it could have been longer, as we don't know anything prior to 1819 (200 years ago this year!)


I have read mention of members of the family in Bishops Hull prior to 1819 but I don't know if that was in this house or just in the area.


Andy bought me a metal detector and I found a button in the garden believed to be from a servants coat - and it shows the family crest - but you can hardly see the image.  It looked like an eagle - similar to the one that used to be on top of our front porch but was moved to next door - when the house was built and called Eagle House (not by the Pattons, but by the next family: The Waterfields)


So - I found the family crest!


 Patton Family Crest


This came from - https://coadb.com/surnames/patton-arms.html


There were 4 different Patton crests - but the one above said - Stoke Court/Bishops Hall Crest.  As the pattons that lived here also owned Stoke court - I am 100% convinced this is correct.  On the same website I found the following info (which I haven't checked against the family tree I have but it all sounds about right!)


Patton of Clayton Priory

General Walter Douglas Phillipps of Clayton Priory county Sussex was born in 1821 and he was Colonel of the 74th Highlanders, a Knight of Medjidie, and a Brigadier-General in Burmah. He was succeeded his father in 1876 and in 1855, he married Julia, daughter of Sir Howard Elphinstone and five children with her: Walter Denman Elphinstone (1859), Herbert Bethune (born 1860, 2nd Lieutenant 3rd Hussars), Douglas Elphinstone Bethune, Julia Elphinstone, and Anne Florence Louisa Mary Bethune. Burke traces the lineage of Patton genealogy to Colonel Henry Patton of the 6th Royal Regiment of Clatto in county Fide, the eldest surviving son of Andrew Patton, Esquire of Springfield in Donegal (the family gained lands there generations prior for displaying valour in battle). In 1747, he married Mary, daughter and heiress of Henry Bethune of Clatto and Nydie, and he had issue with her. His son was James Susannau Patton, Esq. of Clatto in county Fife and of Priory, Lichfield who was Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant who was born in 1753. He was Major in the 93rd Highlanders and Colonel Staffordshire Volunteers who, in 1780, married Merrial, daughter of Thomas Docksey of Snetsone, and had the following issue with her: Henry (born 1780, Lieutenant 1st Royals), Peter (born 1783, Captain Royal Engineers), James (born 1791, served in Royal Navy), Thomas (of Bishop’s Hall), Richard (married Hannah Cullen), John (born 1793, member of Royal Navy), Maria Elizabeth, Susan, Mary (married Lieutenant-Colonel Elliott), Merrial (married a member of the Dodson family), Emma (married Reverend Richard Winsloe), Charlotte (married Sir William Palmer). He died in 1812 and was succeeded by his son Thomas Patton of Bishop’s Hull and Stoke Court, Somerset, who was born in 1792 and became a Commander in the British Royal Navy. In 1819, he married Matilda, daughter of Reverend Richard Winsloe, and had nine children with her: Walter Douglas Phillipps, Herbert Winsloe (born 1823, Captain in the British Royal Army, married Mary, daughter of Charles Gifford), Henry Bethune (born 1834, married Clara Fripp, was Justice of the Peace, Captain of 27th Inniskillings), Lionel Thomas (born 1839, Captain in the 2nd Somerset Militia, married Annette Isaac), Aubrey de Lisle (born 1841, Captain 14thRegiment, married Agnes, daughter of William Corbett, Esq.), Emma Matilda (married Lieutenant Colonel Rawlins), Clara Agnes, Matilda Winsloe (married Cranstoun Adams), and Isabella (married Theobald Walsh). The Patton Coat of Arms (erroneously referred to as the Patton Family Crest) was blazoned in heraldry as follows: Azure, a sword argent hilted or, between three crescents of the second. Crest: A hawk argent.

Jan 5th 2019

Hi

It is Saturday morning - I woke up at 9.15am - but I still feel really tired.  I am sat in my PJ's in the kitchen with my laptop - with a gingerbread latte, and tissues as I still have the cold that caused us to cancel going to Helen and Pauls and New Years Eve.  We were supposed to go to their house last night instead - but Helen had a migraine...so we should be going tonight.  We always have a good time but atm I am not looking forward to it because it is effort! That's just me being really lazy however and I know I will be glad I went.

I know this blog in the past has been full of my obsession with my weight and fitness - but I need to go on about it again!  I am soooo heavy - I look terrible in all my clothes - coupled with getting older I am looking like an old frump.  What happened to my motivation? why isn't the mirror motivation enough?  Why I am such a glutton? It needs to stop....but I tell myself this everyday and then no doubt that evening I will sabotage any efforts I have made during the day.  I know I can do it if I put my mind to it - as well as get fit - start running again....

This morning - I did 10 x crunches, squats and push-ups.  I intend to increase this by 1 each day - this does not require the gym - I can do it next to my bed.  Its nothing and took minutes but if I can continue that I know I will be pleased when I get to 30 or something. 

RIGHT - I am gonna get this weekend over with (H&P's tonight and Stuart coming round tomorrow night for the football - and I'm making macaroni cheese!) and THEN I am going to remind myself how disciplined I can be!!  I am going to stay within my calories, get exercise, not drink alcohol during the week. I need to find recipes and healthy nice things to eat because this is mostly where I fall down.  I need to get rid of the crap in the house so I can't eat it - and if I can I need to try and influence Andy to do it with me!

I think I should find some exercise classes to go to - but last time I looked around here they were so expensive - like £7 a class.  Maybe it has just been so long since I had to pay for a class that this is just normal.....it'd be great to have classes to go to that I enjoy and become routine....I'm going to have a look now...

Okay - just spent about an hour having a looksy - and I can see that there are the kind of classes I would like at Blackbrook Leisure Centre - about 15 minutes away.  I have booked myself in for a Step Aerobics class on Monday at 18.40pm - £6.50!

I have also found another gym - uses the same log-in details - and it is closer - less classes but still the kinda stuff I'd like to do....called Wellsprings leisure centre.  Full Membership is £58 a month - which I cannot afford and do not want - this would cover 9 classes a month, and I don't think I'd ever do more than 2 a week so it is not worth it - especially as I have a gym of my own - although I don't have a swimming pool....yet lol.

It is now 11.23am - Andy is still in bed lol...I am still in my PJ's...but I feel better that I have booked a class - I am hoping that this is the begining of me getting my act together.

2019!!

Happy New year - 2019....one day I'll read back and think - ohhh wish it was still only 2019! lol

Resolutions? As usual...lose weight, get fit....

House resolutions........by this time next year - we have a finished and working holiday annex/airbnb...and a decorated front hallway, a decorated guest bedroom, a finished living room, finished games room.  I'd love to do the downstairs loo and the upstairs one which is so bad everybody calls it the workmans toilet.  If I could do all that and maybe the upstairs hallway too....I'll be very happy!!

There would still be a whole conversion of a front car park to a front garden, and the whole of the attic.....so still more than we can do in the next year.  If we had lots of money I'd have no doubt we could get everything done!

Anyway - we had all the kids here over Christmas - mostly from 23rd to 27th Dec.  Was nice having everybody about - everybody and their partners, who have all been around a while now so its a comfortable, nice family feel.  Most of the time lol. Adam and Erika felt a bit left out by the twins and their partners, and I can see what they mean - Lissa and Connor and their partners seem very like-minded...drunken, loud, fun-loving and reckless! Adam and Erika are a little more reserved, like to have fun, but not so loud and reckless!

Christmas Eve we all went to the local Constitutional club and played skittles - Connor won lol - I came 2nd....but I may have cheated on the score board! lol we had a good laugh as usual...

So....christmas morning - we got up and exchanged gifts - which is always loads of fun!!  Gifts of note - new GoPro, GHD hair curlers and fitbit off Andy - plus tons more stuff as usual lol....a light up Jaguars jumper, Game of Thrones book, coffee, a game....can't remember! I got a pool cue off Adam and Erika! An awesome Freddie mercury canvas pic off Lissa and Antony - and an awesome light up neon sign for the games room off Connor and Emily - plus other stuff!!  After opening pressies, we got tidied up and as is tradition - we did fancy dress on Christmas day.  This year we mixed it up a bit and chose each others outfits.  I knew who Andy had got (Antony) and that I had Lissa, but I had no idea who else had got who until xmas day.  

We left the room with our parcel one at a time - and came back to the group dressed up.  It was so funny seeing ppl coming back with their outfits on!!  I ended up last and thought mine wasn't as funny as everybody else's - but not according to the reaction I got!  I had no idea who I was supposed to be until i put the wig on!! Then I was like - ooohhhh....I'm Donald trump!! hahah

Here are the first pics taken of ppl as they get changed.....

First - Adam:

Then Connor.....

Then Lissa - this is the outfit I chose for her - only somebody like Lissa could carry this off!!

Then Antony - his outfit chosen by Andy!

Erika - outfit chosen by Lissa

Andy's outfit - chosen by Erika - who apparently consulted with helen (thank god - because I believe lycra was mentioned at some point!)

Then my horrendous outfit! Chosen by Connor!!  If I had known Connor was getting mine I'd have been a lot more worried than I was!

Emily spent the day with her family - but when she arrived - she promptly got changed in to her outfit - chosen by Lissa.....

HHmmm I seem to have credited Lissa with 2 - and missed ppl out - I cant remember who got who!!

What I do know is that I was secretly hoping for something where I could still do my hair and make-up and try and look nice.  NO....I ended up looking THIS BAD:

At least this has given me more incentive to lose weight!!

So, once the excitement of all that was over with - we started on Christmas dinner - Connor did the roast potatoes and yorkshire puds, which helped as he did them in his kitchen - then it was chaos trying to get the food out as there was so much of it.  It wasn't bad - not the best and I didn't like the turkey cos it tasted like garlic! (cooked over onion and garlic)....but it was fun sitting down with everybody.

After dinner ppl went off and did their own thing for a while - me, Lissa and Erika had a play with my hair curlers - those two looked awesome - but my hair is thicker and older! lol.  Lissa curled my fringe and it just went at a right angle and into my eye! We could not stop laughing for quite some time!!

Eventually we all re-grouped and played a game that Connor and Emily invented - and then made up properly and gave it to Lissa and Antony as a pressie.  It was surprisingly good - well not that much of a surprise as we have seen them play it before and have a great time!

It ended up a good, late night!!!