9.10am
I'm the only one of our group awake at the moment, i'm sitting on the terrace and it's really peaceful - though a bit chilly. i slept better last night than the night before and i was one of, if not the first to go to sleep.
We went down for dinner at around 8.30pm and we got 'our table' in the restaurant ;-D Last night 3 of us decided to eat from the a la carte menu and only katie had the set menu. We also had the same waiter as the previous night and he remembered our drinks order as well :-D
After dinner we were sitting at the table chatting and the staff member who was doing the fire register in the morning came past and said something about he hoped that last night was going to be a lot quieter than the previous night ;-D Well that wouldn't be difficult! ;-D We were chatting about the fire alarm and stuff and he said they had 120 guests in that night but only 90 actually came out to be registered :-o And apparently in one family the mother and child(ren) had come out but dad refused, he was determined he was staying put :-o Our new friend (Chris?) said they had a room on the ground floor and the bedroom window was open, the child was standing outside pleading with dad to come out but he wouldn't :-o
While we were chatting we got onto the subject of the 'lesbian wedding' it began i think because Catherine wanted to know if they'd actually had the ceremony here or if that had been somewhere else. The person we were talking to didn't know so he asked someone else who was coming past, he didn't know either so they asked someone else and it got quite comical and we were laughing and joking with them. There was only one other group of people in the restaurant at that time and as they went past to leave they seemed pretty irritated - by us? :-S I can't remember, either Jen or Catherine was very concerned that we'd upset them, especially in case they were part of the party, but we don't think they were cos the party had their own function room with a disco and buffet etc. I reckon it was possibly just cos we were noisy.
Once we'd finished dinner and chatting we went back to our room for drinks and after a while we went back to sit outside again. Only 3 of us went outside cos Catherine was tired and decided she was staying in the room. We sat in the same place that Katie and i had sat in the night before and just generally relaxed, chatting about names and stuff with regard to people getting married and having double-barrelled names and what happens in the case of same sex 'marriages' and stuff, until we went back up to out room at about 1am.
When we got back up i started packing some of my stuff so it would be easier this morning. We all got into bed and i know i fell asleep after not that long talking. At one point in the night i haven't got a clue how long after i'd gone to sleep i was half-awake and aware of at least Catherine and Katie talking, i don't know whether Jen was chatting or if she was asleep.
I woke up at aboout 8.30 this morning and decided to get washed and dressed and then put some stuff in the car - i've currently got custody of the car keys ;-D I sorted out what stuff i would need for later into a carrier bag then took just my own case and the jump-starter and then went back to the room to get my laptop and come to sit outside - and that's where we're up to now!
7.50pm
I'm now back at home after a really enjoyable weekend away.
Before i went outside this morning i left Katie a note telling her to ring or text me when she woke up and she texted me at about 10.10am. I went back upstairs to our rooms at that point and the others were all up and getting ready. Once everyone was dressed and packed we took all our stuff down to the car and Katie checked us out (well officially checked us out though i think she managed to keep the keycards so that we could still use the leisure facilities for the rest of the day.
We went in for breakfast but we didn't get 'our' table :-( ;-D We got another table in the corner and that was quite a nice location too. We didn't do the same as yesterday, we didn't take any extra bits of food seeing as we were planning on leaving at around 4ish so we figured we didn't need any lunch.
After breakfast we went back up to our room for the final time, we checked round to make sure we hadn't left anything and we got our stuff together to go to the leisure suite. Jen decided she wasn't doing the pool or the gym cos she wanted to sit outside and get a tan. She took her laptop and a book and found herself somewhere to chill out.
When we got to the leisure suite i hadn't actually decided fully what i was doing cos i was soooo full from breakfast i felt really bloated felt as if i might be ill if i tried to exercise on such a full stomach :-( i sat on the bench while Katie and Catherine got ready but When they'd gone out to the pool i got changed myself into yesterday's sweaty clothes ;-D Once i was changed and ready i went into the pool area and went paddling 8| I stood at the edge of the pool and sat on the handle to get in with my feet on the 2nd step down.
Katie said her and Catherine were planning on staying in the pool till about 1.30 so i sat chatting to them till about 1pm before i finally decided (was persuaded) to go to the gym! I went in and started on the bike today cos it was what i could do the gentlest to warm up. I then went on the cross trainer again but today i did 20 minutes doing a mixture of going forwards and backwards. I also did the rowing machine for longer than yesterday - 20 minutes instead of the 15. While i was rowing i was watching the telly that was in the gym and it was the top 100 of cheesy pop songs. As much as i don't 'do' pop it was actually quite fun.
By the time i'd done the cross trainer and rowing machine i felt able to do the treadmill. Originally i was going to do just the same as yesterday but then when it got to my 15 minutes of 8km/hr i actually began increasing my speed :-o ;-D While i was getting faster the girls came in to see me to say they'd finished in the pool had got changed and were going to find somewhere to sit and chill. In the end i'd done 30 minutes at a variety of speed from 8km/hr to 11km/hr and on my cool-down session i put the speed on a lot slower but increaesd the incline. After that i did 5 minutes on the bike again to finish off.
When i went to get showered and changed i intially had the changing room to myself which suited me fine seeing as there were no locks on the shower doors and nowhere inside the shower cubicle to put a towel and it would stay dry :-( I got in the cubicle nearest the wall and put my carrier bag with towels in on the hooks on the wall. Once i was showered i broke the habit of a lifetime and wandered round the changing room in just a towel :-o Once i was partly dressed i then broke another habit of a lifetime. Because i need a mirror to sort out the dressing on my armpit i got dressed in the cubicle as far as trousers and bra and then i wandered round like that to the mirror and did the dressing before putting my t-shirt on :-o Thankfully no-one saw me but i'd decided i wasn't too bothered if anyone did :-o ;-D
When i was fully dressed and hair done i left the leisure area and went to look for the others. I looked on the terrace, then in the bar and there was no sign of them, i just about to ring katie to see where they were and she texted me to say they were sitting by the front of the hotel by the statue.
I went to find them and we sat chatting for quite some time. We were talking about religion and marriage and Jen was trying to work out exactly what type of person Katie would marry. After a while we got fed up sitting on the grass so we moved to the terrace and continued the same conversation ;-D
We'd originally decided to leave around 4ish but we didn't actually get round to it till about 4.30. When we initially set off i was in the front next to katie so i had the job of navigator :-o We didn't quite follow the directions exactly cos at one point there was a sign for Manchester Road but the sign was right on the corner of the junction and it could've been either of the 2 roads :-S In the end it didn't matter cos we got back on the correct road and we were able to refer to the instructions again.
As we were travelling we decided we'd look for somewhere to have tea before we got to the motorway. We went past a very nice looking hotel and Jen and Katie both agreed it looked like a great place to eat. We went in and were given menues and we were told to sit 'under the board' which was just the other side of the door. A waiter came to take our drinks orders so we asked him what the specials were for the £10 set menu, he told us 2 varieties of soup, turkey, then apple pie. When the 2nd waiter came to take our food order it turned out the 1st one had got it wrong - one of the soups was wrong, and it was beef not turkey 8| In the end we all ordered from that menu - mainly because it was beef rather than turkey - we all agreed that turkey is just for christmas :-p ;-D
The meal and the whole place was very nice, we all agreed on that matter too. As we were leaving, Katie and Jen went to the car before Catherine and i and when we got to the car i found i'd been relegated to the back seat again :-o ;-D
Once we'd left we headed for the motorway and we were on the M58 really quickly - much sooner than i expected compared to when we were on the way there - mind you we didn't get lost going home!!!
As we got to the end of the M58 Katie came back to mine a really strange route :-S As we'd just come off Switch Island i said to her that i presumed she was taking me home first as the others were all in Crosby. At that point she was in the wrong lane to gp direct to mine but she laughed saying her car only goes to Crosby ;-D After that she had plenty of opportunities to change her route to go to my house but still went through Crosby anyway :-S I wasn't bothered cos she was driving, not me, it just seemed really odd :-S :-/
When we got back to mine they all came in for a short while and Catherine made friends with our 2 cats ;-D Jen and Katie both came upstairs and i showed them my ballgown and also showed Jen my bedroom as she'd never seen it before :-)
Once they'd left i asked Paul to check the network connection on my laptop cos i'd been fiddling with settings but he just looked at it, registered it was connected and said it was fine :-S He said if i'd messed anything up i simply wouldn't have got a connection here so it must be ok.
After that i basically just sat and did this blog for a while before making my bed and generally lazing around for the rest of the night.
Sunday, 27 July 2008
Saturday, 26 July 2008
Saturday in Blackrod
It's 9.45am and there's a surprising amount to talk about since i finished last night's entry!! I'm sitting in a sort of terrace place outside and it's actually pretty warm, i brought my jacket with me but i've already taken that off.
We were booked in for dinner at 9pm so we headed down that way and at first we couldn't find the restaurant, we were heading in completely the wrong direction!! When we got to the restaurant there were very few people there which was good, it wasn't noisy and the service was speedy.
We were given the option of a set menu which was included in the price we paid for the rooms or an a la carte menu, on which we had £20 to spend and anything more was charged. The other 3 had meals from the set menu but i decided i wanted the other one.
After dinner we went back up to our room(s) and we were quite tired - it must've been about 10.30pm by this time. We sat around fr a while, Catherine and Jen both had vodka and orange prepared by Katie, she had a coffee and i didn't bother with a drink. I was surprised at how awake i was, especially considering i'd been up since 6 and normally i'd be in bed by 10.30pm :-o
Our rooms were very hot and Katie likes the night time anyway so Katie and I decided to go for a walk outside to cool down, we invited Jen and Catherine but they were both tired and intending to go to sleep. Katie and I found ourselve a couple of seats on the terrace (where i'm sitting now actually) and we just sat and chatted for a while.
I don't know exactly what time it was but i think around 12.30am ish there was a power cut :-o As i could've predicted i jumped when the power went off 8| We stayed there for a while longer enjoying the quiet ;-D The disco from the wedding party had obviously gone off as well, and Katie thought this was fabulous ;-D The power nearly came back on after quite a short time but it was only a very brief flash of power before it all went dark again
11.20am
(We've just got back in our rooms after breakfast and the cleaners being in.)
Katie and i stayed downstairs for a while, in the public areas of the hotel there was emergency lighting so you could see easily although it was obviously very subdued lighting. Katie realised that the key cards run on power so she asked a member of staff, and even he had to confirm with someone else cos he didn't know himself. At one point i was sitting on a couch in the corridor and there was a woman making a fuss saying she was hungry (probably drunk too!) and wanted something to eat but of course without power they can't do anything for her 8|
We eventually decided we should go back to our rooms and see if the other 2 were ok. We didn't know whether the lift would be operating on the emergency power or not, i decided even if it WAS working i didn't trust it on emergency power. As it turned out the lift wasn't working so poor katie had to come up to the 2nd floor on her knee :-(
When we got back we found that Jen and Catherine weren't very happy (and apparently that's putting it mildly!) We were surprised that although there was plenty of emergency lighting in the corridors there was NO light at all in the bedrooms :-o We wedged our door open so that there was some light
We stayed in our rooms for some time, we looked out of the window and realised the power cut wasn't just restricted to our hotel - it was all of the local area and a couple of times when we looked out Katie realised that more areas had gone out :-o
At one point while we were chatting and laughing in Jen and Catherine's room i heard a noise outside our door so i went to check and it was the lady from the room opposite, she was concerned cos she thought there was someone crying in our room - it was actually us laughing ;-D This lady was a bridesmaid from the wedding party and her baby was crying and couldn't sleep because of the pitch-blackness so she was taking her downstairs where there was some light.
While we were faffing about we were chatting about the fact that none of us had a torch with us and i commented that had we been in my car we'd have a torch cos i've got 2 in there. I think it was that that made Katie realise she did have a torch in her car - it's attached to a jump-starter machine she had.
I went down to the car cos out of the 4 of us i was the one dressed and mobile. As i was on my way out to the car i came past a couple who appeared to be heading back to their room with drinks i was telling them that there was no light at all in the bedrooms and they didn't seem to understand :-S
When i was at the car trying to find the keyhole in the boot there was a man in a car outside reception and he beeped his horn so i obviously jumped 8| As i was going in he asked was i with the wedding party - i wasn't dressed for a wedding 8| 8|
I went back to the rooms and we sat round chatting for a bit longer. We were in Jen and Catherine's room and Jen's laptop was sitting on the table so we put that on for a small light source.
At about 2am the power came back on so we all settled down again. Jen and Catherine went back to sleep again and Katie and I were going to watch DVDs but got chatting instead 8| We actually stopped chatting at about 3am.
At 4.55am the fire alarm went off :-o It was a really loud continuous drone sound but i woke up with a real jump and said "what the hell's that?" If i'm honest i went into panic mode for a short while but Katie calmed me down almost immediately. We all checked each other was ok and we got shoes and jackets etc on - i also picked up my phone and my bumbag, checking that i had the room keycard with me. When i thought about it later it was quite funny - one of the specific instructions on the fire drill thing was not to stop to collect belongings.
The lady opposite with the baby wasn't sure what was going on and seemed to be unsure as to whether to go out or not. We got ourselves together and headed outside. Even though the fire alarm was going off the lift was still working so the other 3 went down in the lift but i didn't want to - in fact i've decided this weekend i'm not using the lift - that's gonna be my minor healthy bit ;-D As i was heading down the stairs i got stuck behind the bride who had actually put her wedding dress back on but obviously it wasn't done up and she was holding it round herself so she was quite slow. I met up with the other 3 just outside the door so we went across to where all the people were heading. One of staff was doing a register of us - we had to give our room number and how many of us had come out - Catherine gave their room first and then i gave ours.
We were standing round in the car park which appeared to be the assembly point and there were a couple of frail old people coming out so the staff brought a pile of chairs over - we had an idea that they might bring a chair over for katie ;-D ;-D Thankfully they didn't ;-D
While we were standing there we noticed the lady from the room opposite hadn't come out so we mentioned this to the staff member who was doing the register and he seemed a bit confused and didn't appear to understand what we were saying but it was good that we were talking to him cos he hadn't registered the fact that Catherine had given him their room number 8|
While we were standing there, the bride was a bit in front of us and we could see her with the dress open at the back and Katie was saying she wished she would do the dress up, a few minutes later someone did help her to do it up though i think it was only loose.
After a while we were allowed back in so we went back to our rooms and settled back down to sleep.
We'd set our alarms for around 9.15-9.30 but i woke up just after 9 and decided to get up anyway. I got dressed and padded round the room quietly (at least i was trying to be quiet). While i was pottering around, Katie actually woke up and i'd decided to take my laptop and sit outside on the terrace to do my blog.
The others came to find me and we went for breakfast. We did our normal thing and ate loads for breakfast and also took a few provisions for lunch later on - it's currently 12.55pm and NONE of us is ready to eat again ;-D
When we came back to our rooms after breakfast, the maids were literally just about to start our rooms. Because there's 4 of us sharing 2 rooms we started off in Jen and Catherine's room while mine and Katie's room was done and then we swapped over.
We're going to find the health centre soon, we're not entirely sure what we're gonna do - i know Catherine wants to swim but obviously i can't :-(
5.30pm
In the end we all wandered down towards reception and the health suite. Catherine and Katie had decided to go to the pool and Jen had decided she wanted to find out if there was wi-fi in the hotel because she needed to sort something out on her online banking. Because Jen was investigating the wi-fi i decided i wanted to see as well. Jen asked at reception and they said we should be able to get the wi-fi in the bar area so We went back to get the laptops and set ourselves up in the bar. Jen tried to get the signal first but she couldn't find one and we went off for a wander somewhere else but then came back to the bar and i had a go without success. We figured it wasn't going to happen so i decided to get sorted to go to the gym and i left Jen in the bar for a while. When i came back she said she'd got connected but had had to pay for it :-(
Because she'd got connected she decided she was going to sort out her stuff and i went to the leisure suite. I found Catherine and Katie sitting in the jacuzzi so i went and sat next to the pool for while chatting with them. So much for Katie saying she wouldn't be getting in the pool so she'd be able to do things with me while the others swam!!!!!
I got a chair and sat right next to the jacuzzi so i could at least dangle my feet in. We sat there for quite some time waiting for Jen to come down cos she'd said to me she was going back to the room to sort herself out and then follow me down. We must've sat there for about an hour before Jen appeared. While we were there a lady got into the jacuzzi and she said she was the cousin of last night's bride, apparently they went to bed at about 3am the bride said she'd decided to sleep in her wedding dress last night :-o ;-D Obviously she'd either stuck to her word or had put the dress back on when the fire alarm went off.
Once Jen had joined us, all 3 of them decided they were getting into the proper pool so i went to the gym. When i went in it was really nice cos it was air-conditioned :-) I didn't really have a plan when i went in, my plan formed as i went along ;-D ;-D I did 15 minutes on the cross-trainer, 15 minutes on the rowing machine, 20 minutes on the treadmill (15 minutes at 8km/hr then 5 minutes getting gradually slower), a few minutes on the stomach cruncher thing and then about 10 minutes on the bikes. While i was on the bike i discovered i had really sweated my dressing off :-o I went to see if i could find the others either in the pool area or the changing rooms. As it happened they were in the changing room and just about ready to go back. I got the key from Katie and i went back to our rooms so i could get straight in the shower.
I decided to put my phone and laptop on charge before i got in the shower and while i was pottering about the others came back. We'd had the milk sitting in cold water in the sink to keep fresh so i gave that to Katie before i went in the bathroom. The shower was nice but the bathroom got REALLY steamy and i was thinking there should be an extractor fan :-/ I was quite happy that there wasn't cos it meant the mirror totally steamed up and i don't like the sight of my naked body!! :-p As i was getting out of the shower i spotted there WAS a fan but i couldn't work out where the switch was. I'd taken my long trousers into the bathroom to wear with my sparkly top but while i was in there i changed my mind and realised i had cropped trousers the same colour in my case so i went back into the room with a towel wrapped round my bottom half and changed into the cropped pants.
Once i was dressed and i'd done my hair i had a bit to eat cos Katie and the others had prepared some of the food we had in the room - just enough to keep up going until tea-time.
Because Jen had got wi-fi in the bar i decided to see if it was available in our room. When i went to the wireless network thingy it said there was a network available on-demand but when i tried to connect i got a message saying there were settings on my computer preventing me from connecting so i went through the instructions to allow me to connect but it still didn't work :-( The biggest problem now is that i've changed connection settings so i'll have to get Paul to sort it out when i go home - oops :-$
Katie then put a DVD of Mrs Merton on Jen's computer but Catherine was reading Harry Potter and i sat doing this blog ;-D
I'm guessing we won't do very much for the next couple of hours, we're booked in for dinner at 8.30pm so we'll probably relax and sit round until much nearer the time.
7.35pm
or maybe not ......
Just as soon as i'd turned the computer off after my last entry i decided i was going for a walk 8| ;-D Although it was my decision to go for a walk, once i'd put the idea in the others' heads they all decided they wanted to go for a walk too :-)
There is currently a "wedding" party in the hotel but it is a civil partnership between 2 female partners.
When we got down by reception this party was all milling round by the restaurant and Catherine and Jen refused to go anywhere near it ;-D Katie and I quite fancied walking past them to have a nosey but in the end we walked in the other direction round the hotel. We did stop at one point by the nice view and we took a few photos.
We also decided to take a picture by what we think is the most expensive car in the car park - well it was a Jaguar and was parked far far away from any other cars - someone didn't want anyone to go near or touch his car. When we looked closer Katie spotted it had a £300 tax disc :-o :-o
We completed our circuit of the hotel although we still didn't go past most of the party, we went into the restaurant and through to bypass the people standing round by the very strange statue :-p
We eventually found ourselves sitting on our terrace by the bar. Even then i still went off and wandered round a bit taking photos. We were sitting in the shade but i got cold so i got up and sat on the wall nearby cos that was in the sun.
At about 7.35 we decided to come back to the room, partly cos Jem wanted to get a shower before dinner and also because it was getting chilly. When we came back up Katie opened the wine and Jen and i both had some, though i only had a small glass.
We've now got about 40 minutes until dinner so i guess we really are going to hang around here until then.
We were booked in for dinner at 9pm so we headed down that way and at first we couldn't find the restaurant, we were heading in completely the wrong direction!! When we got to the restaurant there were very few people there which was good, it wasn't noisy and the service was speedy.
We were given the option of a set menu which was included in the price we paid for the rooms or an a la carte menu, on which we had £20 to spend and anything more was charged. The other 3 had meals from the set menu but i decided i wanted the other one.
After dinner we went back up to our room(s) and we were quite tired - it must've been about 10.30pm by this time. We sat around fr a while, Catherine and Jen both had vodka and orange prepared by Katie, she had a coffee and i didn't bother with a drink. I was surprised at how awake i was, especially considering i'd been up since 6 and normally i'd be in bed by 10.30pm :-o
Our rooms were very hot and Katie likes the night time anyway so Katie and I decided to go for a walk outside to cool down, we invited Jen and Catherine but they were both tired and intending to go to sleep. Katie and I found ourselve a couple of seats on the terrace (where i'm sitting now actually) and we just sat and chatted for a while.
I don't know exactly what time it was but i think around 12.30am ish there was a power cut :-o As i could've predicted i jumped when the power went off 8| We stayed there for a while longer enjoying the quiet ;-D The disco from the wedding party had obviously gone off as well, and Katie thought this was fabulous ;-D The power nearly came back on after quite a short time but it was only a very brief flash of power before it all went dark again
11.20am
(We've just got back in our rooms after breakfast and the cleaners being in.)
Katie and i stayed downstairs for a while, in the public areas of the hotel there was emergency lighting so you could see easily although it was obviously very subdued lighting. Katie realised that the key cards run on power so she asked a member of staff, and even he had to confirm with someone else cos he didn't know himself. At one point i was sitting on a couch in the corridor and there was a woman making a fuss saying she was hungry (probably drunk too!) and wanted something to eat but of course without power they can't do anything for her 8|
We eventually decided we should go back to our rooms and see if the other 2 were ok. We didn't know whether the lift would be operating on the emergency power or not, i decided even if it WAS working i didn't trust it on emergency power. As it turned out the lift wasn't working so poor katie had to come up to the 2nd floor on her knee :-(
When we got back we found that Jen and Catherine weren't very happy (and apparently that's putting it mildly!) We were surprised that although there was plenty of emergency lighting in the corridors there was NO light at all in the bedrooms :-o We wedged our door open so that there was some light
We stayed in our rooms for some time, we looked out of the window and realised the power cut wasn't just restricted to our hotel - it was all of the local area and a couple of times when we looked out Katie realised that more areas had gone out :-o
At one point while we were chatting and laughing in Jen and Catherine's room i heard a noise outside our door so i went to check and it was the lady from the room opposite, she was concerned cos she thought there was someone crying in our room - it was actually us laughing ;-D This lady was a bridesmaid from the wedding party and her baby was crying and couldn't sleep because of the pitch-blackness so she was taking her downstairs where there was some light.
While we were faffing about we were chatting about the fact that none of us had a torch with us and i commented that had we been in my car we'd have a torch cos i've got 2 in there. I think it was that that made Katie realise she did have a torch in her car - it's attached to a jump-starter machine she had.
I went down to the car cos out of the 4 of us i was the one dressed and mobile. As i was on my way out to the car i came past a couple who appeared to be heading back to their room with drinks i was telling them that there was no light at all in the bedrooms and they didn't seem to understand :-S
When i was at the car trying to find the keyhole in the boot there was a man in a car outside reception and he beeped his horn so i obviously jumped 8| As i was going in he asked was i with the wedding party - i wasn't dressed for a wedding 8| 8|
I went back to the rooms and we sat round chatting for a bit longer. We were in Jen and Catherine's room and Jen's laptop was sitting on the table so we put that on for a small light source.
At about 2am the power came back on so we all settled down again. Jen and Catherine went back to sleep again and Katie and I were going to watch DVDs but got chatting instead 8| We actually stopped chatting at about 3am.
At 4.55am the fire alarm went off :-o It was a really loud continuous drone sound but i woke up with a real jump and said "what the hell's that?" If i'm honest i went into panic mode for a short while but Katie calmed me down almost immediately. We all checked each other was ok and we got shoes and jackets etc on - i also picked up my phone and my bumbag, checking that i had the room keycard with me. When i thought about it later it was quite funny - one of the specific instructions on the fire drill thing was not to stop to collect belongings.
The lady opposite with the baby wasn't sure what was going on and seemed to be unsure as to whether to go out or not. We got ourselves together and headed outside. Even though the fire alarm was going off the lift was still working so the other 3 went down in the lift but i didn't want to - in fact i've decided this weekend i'm not using the lift - that's gonna be my minor healthy bit ;-D As i was heading down the stairs i got stuck behind the bride who had actually put her wedding dress back on but obviously it wasn't done up and she was holding it round herself so she was quite slow. I met up with the other 3 just outside the door so we went across to where all the people were heading. One of staff was doing a register of us - we had to give our room number and how many of us had come out - Catherine gave their room first and then i gave ours.
We were standing round in the car park which appeared to be the assembly point and there were a couple of frail old people coming out so the staff brought a pile of chairs over - we had an idea that they might bring a chair over for katie ;-D ;-D Thankfully they didn't ;-D
While we were standing there we noticed the lady from the room opposite hadn't come out so we mentioned this to the staff member who was doing the register and he seemed a bit confused and didn't appear to understand what we were saying but it was good that we were talking to him cos he hadn't registered the fact that Catherine had given him their room number 8|
While we were standing there, the bride was a bit in front of us and we could see her with the dress open at the back and Katie was saying she wished she would do the dress up, a few minutes later someone did help her to do it up though i think it was only loose.
After a while we were allowed back in so we went back to our rooms and settled back down to sleep.
We'd set our alarms for around 9.15-9.30 but i woke up just after 9 and decided to get up anyway. I got dressed and padded round the room quietly (at least i was trying to be quiet). While i was pottering around, Katie actually woke up and i'd decided to take my laptop and sit outside on the terrace to do my blog.
The others came to find me and we went for breakfast. We did our normal thing and ate loads for breakfast and also took a few provisions for lunch later on - it's currently 12.55pm and NONE of us is ready to eat again ;-D
When we came back to our rooms after breakfast, the maids were literally just about to start our rooms. Because there's 4 of us sharing 2 rooms we started off in Jen and Catherine's room while mine and Katie's room was done and then we swapped over.
We're going to find the health centre soon, we're not entirely sure what we're gonna do - i know Catherine wants to swim but obviously i can't :-(
5.30pm
In the end we all wandered down towards reception and the health suite. Catherine and Katie had decided to go to the pool and Jen had decided she wanted to find out if there was wi-fi in the hotel because she needed to sort something out on her online banking. Because Jen was investigating the wi-fi i decided i wanted to see as well. Jen asked at reception and they said we should be able to get the wi-fi in the bar area so We went back to get the laptops and set ourselves up in the bar. Jen tried to get the signal first but she couldn't find one and we went off for a wander somewhere else but then came back to the bar and i had a go without success. We figured it wasn't going to happen so i decided to get sorted to go to the gym and i left Jen in the bar for a while. When i came back she said she'd got connected but had had to pay for it :-(
Because she'd got connected she decided she was going to sort out her stuff and i went to the leisure suite. I found Catherine and Katie sitting in the jacuzzi so i went and sat next to the pool for while chatting with them. So much for Katie saying she wouldn't be getting in the pool so she'd be able to do things with me while the others swam!!!!!
I got a chair and sat right next to the jacuzzi so i could at least dangle my feet in. We sat there for quite some time waiting for Jen to come down cos she'd said to me she was going back to the room to sort herself out and then follow me down. We must've sat there for about an hour before Jen appeared. While we were there a lady got into the jacuzzi and she said she was the cousin of last night's bride, apparently they went to bed at about 3am the bride said she'd decided to sleep in her wedding dress last night :-o ;-D Obviously she'd either stuck to her word or had put the dress back on when the fire alarm went off.
Once Jen had joined us, all 3 of them decided they were getting into the proper pool so i went to the gym. When i went in it was really nice cos it was air-conditioned :-) I didn't really have a plan when i went in, my plan formed as i went along ;-D ;-D I did 15 minutes on the cross-trainer, 15 minutes on the rowing machine, 20 minutes on the treadmill (15 minutes at 8km/hr then 5 minutes getting gradually slower), a few minutes on the stomach cruncher thing and then about 10 minutes on the bikes. While i was on the bike i discovered i had really sweated my dressing off :-o I went to see if i could find the others either in the pool area or the changing rooms. As it happened they were in the changing room and just about ready to go back. I got the key from Katie and i went back to our rooms so i could get straight in the shower.
I decided to put my phone and laptop on charge before i got in the shower and while i was pottering about the others came back. We'd had the milk sitting in cold water in the sink to keep fresh so i gave that to Katie before i went in the bathroom. The shower was nice but the bathroom got REALLY steamy and i was thinking there should be an extractor fan :-/ I was quite happy that there wasn't cos it meant the mirror totally steamed up and i don't like the sight of my naked body!! :-p As i was getting out of the shower i spotted there WAS a fan but i couldn't work out where the switch was. I'd taken my long trousers into the bathroom to wear with my sparkly top but while i was in there i changed my mind and realised i had cropped trousers the same colour in my case so i went back into the room with a towel wrapped round my bottom half and changed into the cropped pants.
Once i was dressed and i'd done my hair i had a bit to eat cos Katie and the others had prepared some of the food we had in the room - just enough to keep up going until tea-time.
Because Jen had got wi-fi in the bar i decided to see if it was available in our room. When i went to the wireless network thingy it said there was a network available on-demand but when i tried to connect i got a message saying there were settings on my computer preventing me from connecting so i went through the instructions to allow me to connect but it still didn't work :-( The biggest problem now is that i've changed connection settings so i'll have to get Paul to sort it out when i go home - oops :-$
Katie then put a DVD of Mrs Merton on Jen's computer but Catherine was reading Harry Potter and i sat doing this blog ;-D
I'm guessing we won't do very much for the next couple of hours, we're booked in for dinner at 8.30pm so we'll probably relax and sit round until much nearer the time.
7.35pm
or maybe not ......
Just as soon as i'd turned the computer off after my last entry i decided i was going for a walk 8| ;-D Although it was my decision to go for a walk, once i'd put the idea in the others' heads they all decided they wanted to go for a walk too :-)
There is currently a "wedding" party in the hotel but it is a civil partnership between 2 female partners.
When we got down by reception this party was all milling round by the restaurant and Catherine and Jen refused to go anywhere near it ;-D Katie and I quite fancied walking past them to have a nosey but in the end we walked in the other direction round the hotel. We did stop at one point by the nice view and we took a few photos.
We also decided to take a picture by what we think is the most expensive car in the car park - well it was a Jaguar and was parked far far away from any other cars - someone didn't want anyone to go near or touch his car. When we looked closer Katie spotted it had a £300 tax disc :-o :-o
We completed our circuit of the hotel although we still didn't go past most of the party, we went into the restaurant and through to bypass the people standing round by the very strange statue :-p
We eventually found ourselves sitting on our terrace by the bar. Even then i still went off and wandered round a bit taking photos. We were sitting in the shade but i got cold so i got up and sat on the wall nearby cos that was in the sun.
At about 7.35 we decided to come back to the room, partly cos Jem wanted to get a shower before dinner and also because it was getting chilly. When we came back up Katie opened the wine and Jen and i both had some, though i only had a small glass.
We've now got about 40 minutes until dinner so i guess we really are going to hang around here until then.
Friday, 25 July 2008
Off to Blackrod
It's 8.05pm and we're sitting in the Ramada Jarvis hotel in Blackrod Bolton - we left Katie's at about 5.15pm!!!!!!
We were going ok at first but Maureen rang Katie so it was put on speakerphone and there was a multi-way conversation. It was only when someone asked about the next instruction on the list we realised we'd just gone past the next motorway exit where we should've got off 8| We went to the next junction and still managed to go wrong so we eventually ended up 2 junctions further away than we should've been.
We got off the motorway and into BLackrod and drove round, and round, and round, and round ........... We drove past the same road about 6 times - the hotal apparently is on Chorley Rd but we saw Chorley Rd and Chorley Rd and Chorley Rd 8| In the end we stopped and asked a man in a flourescent jacket with a van for directions. He ummed and ahhed a bit and eventually gave us directions - we got there but we went past it then realised there was a little slip road to get in so we had to go far past it again to a roundabout so we could turn round and get in.
We went in and because Katie's got the disabled badge we got a parking space right in front of the hotel - in fact i noticed we got the very first public space, the one next to us was for staff. when we went in we found there was a wedding party milling around in reception. Katie booked us into our rooms and booked us in for dinner at 9pm.
When we got to our rooms we got in - rooms next door to each other and with connecting doors :-D :-D
We all sat round in Jen and Catherine's room for a while drinking and listening to music on Jennifer's laptop. Jen and i both brought our laptops cos we thought we had wi-fi in the rooms but it was a wired connection and when Jen connected her computer we discovered you had to pay extortionate amounts - £5.99 for one hour!!!!
We were going ok at first but Maureen rang Katie so it was put on speakerphone and there was a multi-way conversation. It was only when someone asked about the next instruction on the list we realised we'd just gone past the next motorway exit where we should've got off 8| We went to the next junction and still managed to go wrong so we eventually ended up 2 junctions further away than we should've been.
We got off the motorway and into BLackrod and drove round, and round, and round, and round ........... We drove past the same road about 6 times - the hotal apparently is on Chorley Rd but we saw Chorley Rd and Chorley Rd and Chorley Rd 8| In the end we stopped and asked a man in a flourescent jacket with a van for directions. He ummed and ahhed a bit and eventually gave us directions - we got there but we went past it then realised there was a little slip road to get in so we had to go far past it again to a roundabout so we could turn round and get in.
We went in and because Katie's got the disabled badge we got a parking space right in front of the hotel - in fact i noticed we got the very first public space, the one next to us was for staff. when we went in we found there was a wedding party milling around in reception. Katie booked us into our rooms and booked us in for dinner at 9pm.
When we got to our rooms we got in - rooms next door to each other and with connecting doors :-D :-D
We all sat round in Jen and Catherine's room for a while drinking and listening to music on Jennifer's laptop. Jen and i both brought our laptops cos we thought we had wi-fi in the rooms but it was a wired connection and when Jen connected her computer we discovered you had to pay extortionate amounts - £5.99 for one hour!!!!
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Party and Tall Ships
I'm currently sitting in the car in Tesco's car park killing time before i go to my very last school before i break up for summer - YAAAAYYY!!!! :-D :-D :-D
Between my last update and the weekend it was pretty normal and boring so i won't even bother writing about what i did!! I'm going to start with Sunday!
I went and did my normal 7 mile run on sunday morning and it was slightly better than last week so i was fairly happy with it. After that i was going to IAM, as i was going i was convinced i was going to quit and felt pretty happy about it. When i got there John and Steve were already there and i knew for certain John was leaving but he came along basically to say goodbye, Brian also was leaving ahd Steve said he had problems at home so he was almost certain he was leaving too. I was extremely cold and visibly shivering after my run and my fingers had done their Raynaud's trick and Shirley seemed quite concerned about me. We had 5 associates turned up but i wasn't sent out cos i think Shirley wanted me to warm up first.
Once all the observers who were going out had gone we were sitting in the room and 'all-mouth-no-action' turned up - that man REALLY annoys me :-@ he'd got some prices for advertising etc but he is NEVER there on a sunday morning for Mass Guidance - even though he calls himself an observer!!! Him and Shirley were discussing what had gone on in the previous meeting which had led to both John and Brian's resignations and i was doing my normal thing of sitting quietly hugging my knees and doing my best not to get upset. Mouth-almighty Phil was busy slagging off John and i was getting REALLY irritated but i daren't say anything cos i knew i'd either blow my top and say something i'd really regret later or else i'd start crying again and i didn't want either of those things to happen. At one point Shirley commented to me "you're very quiet Emma" but right then i was only just holding my emotions together and i wasn;t sure what to say so i didn't say anything. After a while Phil left and it was just me and Shirley in the room - we didn't even talk :-o You could cut the atmosphere with a knife. I was so glad when Steve came back with his associate and Steve went back outside for a smoke so i went out with him and let rip at how much Phil had annoyed me!
When everyone was back we had a very sombre meeting trying to decide whether the group is actually going to continue or not - i suspect in the long run it won't!! I was sort of (reluctantly) persuaded to stay, at least in the short term until we get our current associates through the test. In the long term it sounds like the group is moving away from Mass Guidance - at that point i definitely walk away! I've said all along i have no desire to do 1:1 observing and nothing will change my mind on that matter!
Anyway that was that!
On Sunday afternoon i was going to Jayne's leaving party in Lynda and Morris's house. It was in Southport so i put my sat nav on but initially i ignored it ;-D It kept telling me to turn right but i didn't want to - i knew how to get to Southport, well at least as far as the Formby Bypass so i went that way and i only needed Mr Tomtom for the last bit. When i arrived at the house there was already a lady with her 2 children on the step and she said she was having trouble getting an answer - she'd rung the bell and knocked on the door but there was no answer, she was guessing everyone was in the back garden. I had a brainwave to ring Morris but even that didn't work, it just kept ringing out 8| Eventually Morris came to the door - and it wasn't a result of me ringing ;-D As we suspected everyone was in the garden - there were quite a few of my colleagues there so i stood chatting to them.
There was a trampoline in the garden which obviously all the children were playing on and i was looking at it thinking it looked like great fun but i didn't actually go on it - until Lynda said "come on Emma, let's have a grown-ups go on the trampoline";-D ;-D Well that was it - i was in my element ;-D Initially i only took my shoes off but then i decided the socks were too slippy so i took them off and threw them over the top of the net and while i was bouncing my cardi was sliding down my arms so i threw that out as well ;-D ;-D ;-D
Lynda's 2 girls are aged 6 and 8 and i had great fun with them all afternoon - especially Freya the younger one. We did lots of bouncing and quite a few times i went flying, each time i got up laughing and i think Freya cottoned on to this cos she then decided what a great game it would be for her to see how many times she could trip me up ;-D So i was bouncing and she was grabbling my ankles to try and pull me over - each time i went down it was a point to her and each time i escaped it was a point to me ;-D She was very kind and gave me a couple of free points ;-D I spent a long time bouncing with Freya attached to my ankle ;-D
I had a strappy top on so obviously you could see the dressing on my armpit and Freya was fascinated by it :-S ;-D She even decided to have a poke at it and said "does that hurt?" ;-D As it happened it didn't hurt - more tickled really.
I don't know how it came about initially but at one point i found myself flat on my stomach with Freya sitting on my back so i got up so that she was sitting on my back and i did a bucking bronco with her ;-D Again she thought this was great fun :-D I was sitting on the trampoline for a minute or two and Freya touched my head then said "eww you're all sweaty" and then kept coming back and touching it again - with the same response each time ;-D ;-D ;-D
A bit later in the afternoon i went to sit with Morris at the other end of the garden for a rest LOL and as i sat down he said "Oh i can hear you breathing" ;-D Though actually i was wheezing a bit :-$ As i was sitting there the wheezing was getting worse so just as i had decided to get the inhaler Morris twigged and as i was Walking to my bag he asked was i asthmatic :-$ oops :-$ After that i just sat chatting for a while as i recovered.
While we were sitting being very civilised (haha) another 3 people turned up although lots had already left ;-D There was 2 ladies and a teenage lad, Matthew. At one point Matthew was sitting on one of the pink fold up chairs and Freya was saying he wasn't allowed to sit there cos he's a boy ;-D ;-D
The girls have also got a slide in the back garden and they were playing on it while the adults were chatting. Freya kept getting stuck cos she was putting her feet on it and she said her feet were all sweaty off my head :-o ;-D i was laughing but Lynda hadn't heard what she said - when i told her, Lynda was saying she couldn't believe some of the things Freya was saying to the adults - she particularly couldn't work out whether Jayne was male or female because in her 6 year old world girls have long hair and boys have short - well Jayne is nearly scalped!! Apparently at one point Freya called her a 'girl-boy' :-o Thankfully Jayne mis-heard and thought she'd said Del-boy and Jayne is the kind of person who is not bothered by things like that at all.
Later on in the evening i'd got back on the trampoline and was doing bucking bronco again, Freya looked at me and said "you can see your bra!" i said yes i knew that and she then said "but what if Matthew sees it?" ;-D I didn't quite know how to reply and luckily something else distracted her just at that point - phew LOL ;-D
I'd got there at about 4pm and from 8ish i was saying i had to go home but the girls wanted me to stay and play ;-D ;-D In fact they both (separately) suggested i could stay over ;-D ;-D When i said i had no clothes i was told "well you could borrow mummy's" ;-D ;-D I was able to prise myself away at about 8.30 cos Lynda was taking them to the video shop - they had a DVD that had to be back before 9pm.
(right it's time to go to school now so i'll continue this update later)
It's now 14:55 and i'm home - i've finished work for summer :-D :-D
Anyway, carrying on from earlier.
I left Lynda and Morris's house at about 8.30 and told the satnav to take me home. I didn't know which route it was taking me - especially when it DIDN'T lead me to a road labelled "Liverpool" :-S I was also sorry i was following satnav and didn't know where i was when i hit a very long and very slow moving traffic queue :-( So much for the tomtom being able to detect and re-route around slow moving queues 8| I spent about half an hour to travel 2 miles - i occasionally even got into 2nd gear!!! After i'd travelled this 2 miles i discovered why there was such a queue. At one junction (presumably somewhere near the golf course) there were 2 motorbike police periodically stopping traffic on the main road and letting loads of traffic out of the side road 8| On one of their stops it was me they stopped and i seemed to be sitting there for AGES while they let all this traffic out of the side road. After that the traffic flowed more or less ok all the way home and it was actually quite a nice route along lots of country roads.
Yesterday i had a day off work and there was an art thing in St Helens that i wanted to see which is only open until tomorrow so i arranged with Neil i'd go to his in the morning to see them. We wandered down to town and saw the 2 art displays - one of which is Anthony Gormley's "Field" which has about 40,000 clay figures all filling a room - and we weren't even allowed to take photos :-( The other art thing was an open art competition in St Helens library and Neil has one piece exhibited - i also voted in that but not for Neil's piece, my vote went to a painting of a cat - aww.
In the afternoon i'd decided i was going to see the tall ships at Crosby beach. I decided i was cycling cos parking would be a nightmare!!
I left here at about 1pm and decided to go along the canal path. One bit of the path was really really rough - as if they were working on it and as it was close to mine i decided to get off before there on the way back. It's ages since i've been to crosby on my bike and i got a bit disorientated as to where i needed to leave the path to go back to the roads - i ended up cycling further than i needed to 8|
When i got to the prom there were already loads of people there, i bought an official programme then wandered along to see if i could find a bit of wall to sit on. As it happens i did find a gap so i just put my bike down behind me and made myself comfortable - well as comfortable as you can sitting on a stone wall LOL ;-D
I'd brought my radio with me to listen to what was going on but when i originally tried it it said "No Stations" :-o :-o A digital radio with no signal - i was not impressed!!! Thankfully when i tried again about 10 minutes later it did find a signal. Because i had the radio i knew what was going on so i was giving a running commentary of the interesting bits to the ladies sitting next to me ;-D
We'd been told the Parade of Sail would start at 2pm but it didn't actually get started until about 2.20pm and they started coming past us at around 3pm. Unfortunately there was quite a srong wind heading in the wrong direction so most of the ships were unable to put out much sail :-( Some of the smaller ships had sails up but the big ones that would've been the most impressive were just bare masts :-(
It took about an hour and a half for all the ships to come past and it was really nice - the atmosphere was really calm, there were children playing on the beach among the iron men, LOTS of people just standing taking photos or admiring the ships through binoculars. I was glad i went :-)
At about 4.30 after the last ship had passed us, people started dispersing to go home. Although i had my bike i wasn't able to ride it for quite a long time cos the path down from the beach to the marina and out to the road was really congested with people. When i did get to the roads and i was able to ride i was SOOOOO glad i was on a bike and not in a car cos the roads were gridlocked - i was able to do that annoying cyclist thing and filter past all the cars :-D
I went out again at 6pm for my piano lesson and on the travel news it was saying that the roads in that area were still congested and i was talking to Sue later in the evening on facebook, she lives on the main dual carriageway away from the beach and she said that road was still busy until about 7pm :-o :-o
Well i've now finished work :-D :-D :-D :-D
I'm going out later to the the Prince Caspian film with Neil so i'll sign off for now and update again when i've got something interesting to write about - or not hahaha ;-D
Between my last update and the weekend it was pretty normal and boring so i won't even bother writing about what i did!! I'm going to start with Sunday!
I went and did my normal 7 mile run on sunday morning and it was slightly better than last week so i was fairly happy with it. After that i was going to IAM, as i was going i was convinced i was going to quit and felt pretty happy about it. When i got there John and Steve were already there and i knew for certain John was leaving but he came along basically to say goodbye, Brian also was leaving ahd Steve said he had problems at home so he was almost certain he was leaving too. I was extremely cold and visibly shivering after my run and my fingers had done their Raynaud's trick and Shirley seemed quite concerned about me. We had 5 associates turned up but i wasn't sent out cos i think Shirley wanted me to warm up first.
Once all the observers who were going out had gone we were sitting in the room and 'all-mouth-no-action' turned up - that man REALLY annoys me :-@ he'd got some prices for advertising etc but he is NEVER there on a sunday morning for Mass Guidance - even though he calls himself an observer!!! Him and Shirley were discussing what had gone on in the previous meeting which had led to both John and Brian's resignations and i was doing my normal thing of sitting quietly hugging my knees and doing my best not to get upset. Mouth-almighty Phil was busy slagging off John and i was getting REALLY irritated but i daren't say anything cos i knew i'd either blow my top and say something i'd really regret later or else i'd start crying again and i didn't want either of those things to happen. At one point Shirley commented to me "you're very quiet Emma" but right then i was only just holding my emotions together and i wasn;t sure what to say so i didn't say anything. After a while Phil left and it was just me and Shirley in the room - we didn't even talk :-o You could cut the atmosphere with a knife. I was so glad when Steve came back with his associate and Steve went back outside for a smoke so i went out with him and let rip at how much Phil had annoyed me!
When everyone was back we had a very sombre meeting trying to decide whether the group is actually going to continue or not - i suspect in the long run it won't!! I was sort of (reluctantly) persuaded to stay, at least in the short term until we get our current associates through the test. In the long term it sounds like the group is moving away from Mass Guidance - at that point i definitely walk away! I've said all along i have no desire to do 1:1 observing and nothing will change my mind on that matter!
Anyway that was that!
On Sunday afternoon i was going to Jayne's leaving party in Lynda and Morris's house. It was in Southport so i put my sat nav on but initially i ignored it ;-D It kept telling me to turn right but i didn't want to - i knew how to get to Southport, well at least as far as the Formby Bypass so i went that way and i only needed Mr Tomtom for the last bit. When i arrived at the house there was already a lady with her 2 children on the step and she said she was having trouble getting an answer - she'd rung the bell and knocked on the door but there was no answer, she was guessing everyone was in the back garden. I had a brainwave to ring Morris but even that didn't work, it just kept ringing out 8| Eventually Morris came to the door - and it wasn't a result of me ringing ;-D As we suspected everyone was in the garden - there were quite a few of my colleagues there so i stood chatting to them.
There was a trampoline in the garden which obviously all the children were playing on and i was looking at it thinking it looked like great fun but i didn't actually go on it - until Lynda said "come on Emma, let's have a grown-ups go on the trampoline";-D ;-D Well that was it - i was in my element ;-D Initially i only took my shoes off but then i decided the socks were too slippy so i took them off and threw them over the top of the net and while i was bouncing my cardi was sliding down my arms so i threw that out as well ;-D ;-D ;-D
Lynda's 2 girls are aged 6 and 8 and i had great fun with them all afternoon - especially Freya the younger one. We did lots of bouncing and quite a few times i went flying, each time i got up laughing and i think Freya cottoned on to this cos she then decided what a great game it would be for her to see how many times she could trip me up ;-D So i was bouncing and she was grabbling my ankles to try and pull me over - each time i went down it was a point to her and each time i escaped it was a point to me ;-D She was very kind and gave me a couple of free points ;-D I spent a long time bouncing with Freya attached to my ankle ;-D
I had a strappy top on so obviously you could see the dressing on my armpit and Freya was fascinated by it :-S ;-D She even decided to have a poke at it and said "does that hurt?" ;-D As it happened it didn't hurt - more tickled really.
I don't know how it came about initially but at one point i found myself flat on my stomach with Freya sitting on my back so i got up so that she was sitting on my back and i did a bucking bronco with her ;-D Again she thought this was great fun :-D I was sitting on the trampoline for a minute or two and Freya touched my head then said "eww you're all sweaty" and then kept coming back and touching it again - with the same response each time ;-D ;-D ;-D
A bit later in the afternoon i went to sit with Morris at the other end of the garden for a rest LOL and as i sat down he said "Oh i can hear you breathing" ;-D Though actually i was wheezing a bit :-$ As i was sitting there the wheezing was getting worse so just as i had decided to get the inhaler Morris twigged and as i was Walking to my bag he asked was i asthmatic :-$ oops :-$ After that i just sat chatting for a while as i recovered.
While we were sitting being very civilised (haha) another 3 people turned up although lots had already left ;-D There was 2 ladies and a teenage lad, Matthew. At one point Matthew was sitting on one of the pink fold up chairs and Freya was saying he wasn't allowed to sit there cos he's a boy ;-D ;-D
The girls have also got a slide in the back garden and they were playing on it while the adults were chatting. Freya kept getting stuck cos she was putting her feet on it and she said her feet were all sweaty off my head :-o ;-D i was laughing but Lynda hadn't heard what she said - when i told her, Lynda was saying she couldn't believe some of the things Freya was saying to the adults - she particularly couldn't work out whether Jayne was male or female because in her 6 year old world girls have long hair and boys have short - well Jayne is nearly scalped!! Apparently at one point Freya called her a 'girl-boy' :-o Thankfully Jayne mis-heard and thought she'd said Del-boy and Jayne is the kind of person who is not bothered by things like that at all.
Later on in the evening i'd got back on the trampoline and was doing bucking bronco again, Freya looked at me and said "you can see your bra!" i said yes i knew that and she then said "but what if Matthew sees it?" ;-D I didn't quite know how to reply and luckily something else distracted her just at that point - phew LOL ;-D
I'd got there at about 4pm and from 8ish i was saying i had to go home but the girls wanted me to stay and play ;-D ;-D In fact they both (separately) suggested i could stay over ;-D ;-D When i said i had no clothes i was told "well you could borrow mummy's" ;-D ;-D I was able to prise myself away at about 8.30 cos Lynda was taking them to the video shop - they had a DVD that had to be back before 9pm.
(right it's time to go to school now so i'll continue this update later)
It's now 14:55 and i'm home - i've finished work for summer :-D :-D
Anyway, carrying on from earlier.
I left Lynda and Morris's house at about 8.30 and told the satnav to take me home. I didn't know which route it was taking me - especially when it DIDN'T lead me to a road labelled "Liverpool" :-S I was also sorry i was following satnav and didn't know where i was when i hit a very long and very slow moving traffic queue :-( So much for the tomtom being able to detect and re-route around slow moving queues 8| I spent about half an hour to travel 2 miles - i occasionally even got into 2nd gear!!! After i'd travelled this 2 miles i discovered why there was such a queue. At one junction (presumably somewhere near the golf course) there were 2 motorbike police periodically stopping traffic on the main road and letting loads of traffic out of the side road 8| On one of their stops it was me they stopped and i seemed to be sitting there for AGES while they let all this traffic out of the side road. After that the traffic flowed more or less ok all the way home and it was actually quite a nice route along lots of country roads.
Yesterday i had a day off work and there was an art thing in St Helens that i wanted to see which is only open until tomorrow so i arranged with Neil i'd go to his in the morning to see them. We wandered down to town and saw the 2 art displays - one of which is Anthony Gormley's "Field" which has about 40,000 clay figures all filling a room - and we weren't even allowed to take photos :-( The other art thing was an open art competition in St Helens library and Neil has one piece exhibited - i also voted in that but not for Neil's piece, my vote went to a painting of a cat - aww.
In the afternoon i'd decided i was going to see the tall ships at Crosby beach. I decided i was cycling cos parking would be a nightmare!!
I left here at about 1pm and decided to go along the canal path. One bit of the path was really really rough - as if they were working on it and as it was close to mine i decided to get off before there on the way back. It's ages since i've been to crosby on my bike and i got a bit disorientated as to where i needed to leave the path to go back to the roads - i ended up cycling further than i needed to 8|
When i got to the prom there were already loads of people there, i bought an official programme then wandered along to see if i could find a bit of wall to sit on. As it happens i did find a gap so i just put my bike down behind me and made myself comfortable - well as comfortable as you can sitting on a stone wall LOL ;-D
I'd brought my radio with me to listen to what was going on but when i originally tried it it said "No Stations" :-o :-o A digital radio with no signal - i was not impressed!!! Thankfully when i tried again about 10 minutes later it did find a signal. Because i had the radio i knew what was going on so i was giving a running commentary of the interesting bits to the ladies sitting next to me ;-D
We'd been told the Parade of Sail would start at 2pm but it didn't actually get started until about 2.20pm and they started coming past us at around 3pm. Unfortunately there was quite a srong wind heading in the wrong direction so most of the ships were unable to put out much sail :-( Some of the smaller ships had sails up but the big ones that would've been the most impressive were just bare masts :-(
It took about an hour and a half for all the ships to come past and it was really nice - the atmosphere was really calm, there were children playing on the beach among the iron men, LOTS of people just standing taking photos or admiring the ships through binoculars. I was glad i went :-)
At about 4.30 after the last ship had passed us, people started dispersing to go home. Although i had my bike i wasn't able to ride it for quite a long time cos the path down from the beach to the marina and out to the road was really congested with people. When i did get to the roads and i was able to ride i was SOOOOO glad i was on a bike and not in a car cos the roads were gridlocked - i was able to do that annoying cyclist thing and filter past all the cars :-D
I went out again at 6pm for my piano lesson and on the travel news it was saying that the roads in that area were still congested and i was talking to Sue later in the evening on facebook, she lives on the main dual carriageway away from the beach and she said that road was still busy until about 7pm :-o :-o
Well i've now finished work :-D :-D :-D :-D
I'm going out later to the the Prince Caspian film with Neil so i'll sign off for now and update again when i've got something interesting to write about - or not hahaha ;-D
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Race for Life
To follow on from my last entry - i went to the health centre on monday morning and actually saw a nurse i've not seen before :-o LOL Unfortunately i was told no i'm still not healed enough to swim :-( When i asked if 10 weeks was a normal amount of time she sort of ummed and ahhed a bit and said it can be *rolleyes*
When i went to work i was being really organised - i did my mileage claim, checked any paperwork that needed doing, emptied my pigeonhole and said goodbye for the end of term - i wasn't intending going back. When i got to my next school i was looking for my mileage book - it wasn't in its normal place, it didn't seem to be in the boot, i couldn't find it in the passenger side of the car so i rang the office - yes i'd left it there!!! That meant i had to go back to Formby after school just to collect it *rolleyes* - what is it they say about the best laid plans .....
Yesterday afternoon i'd planned to leave my car at the Training and Conference Centre basically all afternoon ready for the Race for Life in the evening. Well, because i work half days i got there at about 11.45 - just perfect timing cos all my colleagues were literally on their way out for lunch so i parked my car and got into Sue's car and we headed off to the pub for lunch :-D
We weren't particularly impressed with lunch - especially Helena, she ordered something advertised as "Roasted vegetable baguette with hummous" (or somehing like that), when it came it consisted of a baguette with one baby carrot, one piece of corguette and one grain of something that may have been supposed to represent hummous! She'd got it with chips and salad so she ate most of them but then decided she was going to complain. She said they were very good about it and actually when the manager saw what she'd been presented with he was quite horrified!
When we got back to work the afternoon was spent in rehearsals for Music Alive - of which we've only got one morning this week. I'm supposed to work for Knowsley in the afternoon and Liverpool in the morning but i've swapped that for Thursday so that i can take part in Music Alive :-) It's doubly good cos we're playing a piece of music written when recorders were a very popular instrument and we did have people playing sopranino, descant, treble and tenor but no bass. Sue said she had a bass recorder but they had no-one left to play it, I've got one (which actually belongs to another authority) so for the concerts i'm there for i'll be playing bass and it means we've got the whole consort :-)
After work most people were eager to get away but i wasn't bothered how long they took faffing about cos i was hanging round for the next 3 hours anyway for the Race. I put all my stuff away and then checked with Ian it was ok for me to hang round and play the piano in the dining room - thankfully it was, as i expected it to be.
I settled myself down and did about an hour's practice before i stopped to have my tea. While i was eating my tea i texted Helen to tell her i was a different phone number for the evening - it's a smaller phone which fits into my waist pouch i wear for running. Once i'd had my tea i went to get changed. Once i was changed i was still in the toilets doing my hair and a lady came in and wished me luck - obviously at that point i was wearing my t-shirt with my entry number on so it was obvious what i was ready for. Once i was ready i took my stuff out to the car and actually decided to move my car to a better place in the car park ready for getting away easier.
After i was changed and ready i still had about 40 minutes before i was supposed to be meeting Helen so i went back to the dining room and did some more piano - i did about half an hour of scales - i played the 6th apart scales, the ones i really dislike but at least i was using the time usefully.
We were due to be at the Race starting point at about 6.30 ready for warm ups and stuff so i decided to stroll over at about 6.20. I've been to Knowsley Hall before but i'd forgotten just how long the drive was and it took me about 15 minutes to walk down to the hall. Helen said they'd been intending to leave her house at about 6.10-6.15 so they should've been there but i couldn't see her so i rang her and she said they were just leaving the car park so i stayed put near the entrance to the field so we'd see each other easily.
They arrived about 10 minutes later - Helen, Sue, Mike, James and Emma, and 2 other adults who weren't introduced to me but i think one was Helen and Sue's mum - not sure of the other lady, possibly Mike's mum :-/ We stayed where we were and Helen rang Chris to see where she was - it turned out she was just leaving the car park too ;-D She arrived with us at about 6.55 i think and that was our team complete :-) While we were chatting Sue met someone else she knew and was friendly with so she decided to run with her instead of us.
The people from Century Radio were there leading the entertainment and warm ups. We started off by doing YMCA which i really love so i was getting into it and Helen and Chris were laughing saying they wanted hard hats to guard against being walloped by my arms ;-D ;-D While we were hanging round there were Century Radio people coming round and doing signs for the very little children to wave to cheer on the people they were with so James and Emma each got a sign as did Chris's little girl who was being looked after by her dad.
While we were hanging round the Mayor of Knowsley got up to say hello to us and they did a few shout-outs, Helen had got one for us so we cheered ourselves when they called our names ;-D ;-D There were 2 girls from a health club leading the proper warm ups which was basically aerobics type exercises. They also announced there would be a delay on the start of the Race because there were so many people still trying to get in so if we were to start running we'd collide with the people coming in.
We were split into 2 groups - runners and walkers and we had to go the man holding the appropriate flag. I think it was about 7.40ish when we actually got started. Obviously at the very beginning there were so many of us all squashed together that we couldn't really run properly but once we got going i was surprised at how much Chris was going for it - and she was getting annoyed cos there were people already walking and we were in the running group. At one point i really put my foot in it cos i said to Helen about chris "I thought you said she was slow" so Helen told this to Chris :-$
Helen and i stayed together all the way round but we did lose Chris after a while, she dropped back a bit while we kept going. It was really good fun, we were laughing at the sheep running away from us and a bit further round there were more sheep (or maybe the same ones and we were seeing them from a different direction) and then there were horses - awww. I was telling Helen i'd love to go horse riding and she said she used to as a child when they went on holiday.
Right round the course there were marker posts at each kilometre and then there was a 500m marker post too. Helen and i crossed the finish line together at 35 minutes and 24 seconds :-) As we crossed the finish line there were official people taking pictures so i need to look on the website in the next few days. We stopped and waited for Chris and then we went back to find Helen and Chris's families.
The families both had cameras and Mike had my camera so we got 'team photos' done after the Race ;-D I also suggested we get photos taken of our backs with the labels we'd done ;-D
After that we split up to go back to our respective car parks cos i was parked at the T&CC and they were all parked in the Prescot car park. I knew i had at least another kilometre to go back cos we passed the 1k marker post part-way up the drive so i actually decided to run back :-o LOL After i'd just done the 5k Race :-o LOL Well i would normally do 7 miles on a sunday morning and 5k is only about 3.5 miles so i hadn't done anywhere near my normal amount anyway ;-D
When i got home i discovered i had a blister on the bottom of my foot :-o With all the running i do and i get a blister after 5k :-o I also discovered that my camera mustn't have been working cos there were NO pictures from the Race on it at all - not even the pictures i thought i'd taken before i met them so i can't blame Mike.
When i went to work i was being really organised - i did my mileage claim, checked any paperwork that needed doing, emptied my pigeonhole and said goodbye for the end of term - i wasn't intending going back. When i got to my next school i was looking for my mileage book - it wasn't in its normal place, it didn't seem to be in the boot, i couldn't find it in the passenger side of the car so i rang the office - yes i'd left it there!!! That meant i had to go back to Formby after school just to collect it *rolleyes* - what is it they say about the best laid plans .....
Yesterday afternoon i'd planned to leave my car at the Training and Conference Centre basically all afternoon ready for the Race for Life in the evening. Well, because i work half days i got there at about 11.45 - just perfect timing cos all my colleagues were literally on their way out for lunch so i parked my car and got into Sue's car and we headed off to the pub for lunch :-D
We weren't particularly impressed with lunch - especially Helena, she ordered something advertised as "Roasted vegetable baguette with hummous" (or somehing like that), when it came it consisted of a baguette with one baby carrot, one piece of corguette and one grain of something that may have been supposed to represent hummous! She'd got it with chips and salad so she ate most of them but then decided she was going to complain. She said they were very good about it and actually when the manager saw what she'd been presented with he was quite horrified!
When we got back to work the afternoon was spent in rehearsals for Music Alive - of which we've only got one morning this week. I'm supposed to work for Knowsley in the afternoon and Liverpool in the morning but i've swapped that for Thursday so that i can take part in Music Alive :-) It's doubly good cos we're playing a piece of music written when recorders were a very popular instrument and we did have people playing sopranino, descant, treble and tenor but no bass. Sue said she had a bass recorder but they had no-one left to play it, I've got one (which actually belongs to another authority) so for the concerts i'm there for i'll be playing bass and it means we've got the whole consort :-)
After work most people were eager to get away but i wasn't bothered how long they took faffing about cos i was hanging round for the next 3 hours anyway for the Race. I put all my stuff away and then checked with Ian it was ok for me to hang round and play the piano in the dining room - thankfully it was, as i expected it to be.
I settled myself down and did about an hour's practice before i stopped to have my tea. While i was eating my tea i texted Helen to tell her i was a different phone number for the evening - it's a smaller phone which fits into my waist pouch i wear for running. Once i'd had my tea i went to get changed. Once i was changed i was still in the toilets doing my hair and a lady came in and wished me luck - obviously at that point i was wearing my t-shirt with my entry number on so it was obvious what i was ready for. Once i was ready i took my stuff out to the car and actually decided to move my car to a better place in the car park ready for getting away easier.
After i was changed and ready i still had about 40 minutes before i was supposed to be meeting Helen so i went back to the dining room and did some more piano - i did about half an hour of scales - i played the 6th apart scales, the ones i really dislike but at least i was using the time usefully.
We were due to be at the Race starting point at about 6.30 ready for warm ups and stuff so i decided to stroll over at about 6.20. I've been to Knowsley Hall before but i'd forgotten just how long the drive was and it took me about 15 minutes to walk down to the hall. Helen said they'd been intending to leave her house at about 6.10-6.15 so they should've been there but i couldn't see her so i rang her and she said they were just leaving the car park so i stayed put near the entrance to the field so we'd see each other easily.
They arrived about 10 minutes later - Helen, Sue, Mike, James and Emma, and 2 other adults who weren't introduced to me but i think one was Helen and Sue's mum - not sure of the other lady, possibly Mike's mum :-/ We stayed where we were and Helen rang Chris to see where she was - it turned out she was just leaving the car park too ;-D She arrived with us at about 6.55 i think and that was our team complete :-) While we were chatting Sue met someone else she knew and was friendly with so she decided to run with her instead of us.
The people from Century Radio were there leading the entertainment and warm ups. We started off by doing YMCA which i really love so i was getting into it and Helen and Chris were laughing saying they wanted hard hats to guard against being walloped by my arms ;-D ;-D While we were hanging round there were Century Radio people coming round and doing signs for the very little children to wave to cheer on the people they were with so James and Emma each got a sign as did Chris's little girl who was being looked after by her dad.
While we were hanging round the Mayor of Knowsley got up to say hello to us and they did a few shout-outs, Helen had got one for us so we cheered ourselves when they called our names ;-D ;-D There were 2 girls from a health club leading the proper warm ups which was basically aerobics type exercises. They also announced there would be a delay on the start of the Race because there were so many people still trying to get in so if we were to start running we'd collide with the people coming in.
We were split into 2 groups - runners and walkers and we had to go the man holding the appropriate flag. I think it was about 7.40ish when we actually got started. Obviously at the very beginning there were so many of us all squashed together that we couldn't really run properly but once we got going i was surprised at how much Chris was going for it - and she was getting annoyed cos there were people already walking and we were in the running group. At one point i really put my foot in it cos i said to Helen about chris "I thought you said she was slow" so Helen told this to Chris :-$
Helen and i stayed together all the way round but we did lose Chris after a while, she dropped back a bit while we kept going. It was really good fun, we were laughing at the sheep running away from us and a bit further round there were more sheep (or maybe the same ones and we were seeing them from a different direction) and then there were horses - awww. I was telling Helen i'd love to go horse riding and she said she used to as a child when they went on holiday.
Right round the course there were marker posts at each kilometre and then there was a 500m marker post too. Helen and i crossed the finish line together at 35 minutes and 24 seconds :-) As we crossed the finish line there were official people taking pictures so i need to look on the website in the next few days. We stopped and waited for Chris and then we went back to find Helen and Chris's families.
The families both had cameras and Mike had my camera so we got 'team photos' done after the Race ;-D I also suggested we get photos taken of our backs with the labels we'd done ;-D
After that we split up to go back to our respective car parks cos i was parked at the T&CC and they were all parked in the Prescot car park. I knew i had at least another kilometre to go back cos we passed the 1k marker post part-way up the drive so i actually decided to run back :-o LOL After i'd just done the 5k Race :-o LOL Well i would normally do 7 miles on a sunday morning and 5k is only about 3.5 miles so i hadn't done anywhere near my normal amount anyway ;-D
When i got home i discovered i had a blister on the bottom of my foot :-o With all the running i do and i get a blister after 5k :-o I also discovered that my camera mustn't have been working cos there were NO pictures from the Race on it at all - not even the pictures i thought i'd taken before i met them so i can't blame Mike.
Sunday, 13 July 2008
The Weekend
Well this weekend has been pretty hectic actually - and i'm suffering for it now LOL I'm soooooo tired!!!
On Friday i was praying for good weather in the afternoon cos our samba band was supposed to be playing outdoors for the school summer fair where it's based. Thankfully the weather did stay dry enough, it also meant we could do the yr 3 samba lesson in the playground rather than the classroom. At the end of the school day the fair started and the choir were doing the first performance - they sang a long medley of Beatles songs and they were pretty good :-) They were very choir-like though, with the style of songs they were singing it might have been better if they'd looked a bit more relaxed. Once the choir had finished we had to gather together the samba band - including some of the Parents' Association members who were on stalls and had to leave them long enough to perform. Because the choir had been on for ages I was determined that our samba band would be on for a significant length of time too ;-D I really enjoy doing the samba and i'm glad i've got at least one session a week next academic year :-)
I didn't have a dancing lesson on friday afternoon and yesterday daytime was normal.
After yesterday's dancing Ann made me feel important ;-D I was asking her when she'd be available at the dancing school next friday cos i suspect i'm finishing work early but i don't know yet exactly what time. Ann asked me to tell her when i know for certain and she'll arrange the rest of her day round me ;-D ;-D
Last night was Pam's leaving party in Southport, the only problem was that it was beginning with a concert at 7pm which didn't give me very much time at all to get ready when i was only getting home at about 5.20 and i had to have a shower etc and ideally be leaving at 6.15 :-o I didn't quite make it - i left here at 6.30 and got there late :-$ BUT i wasn't the latest to arrive ;-D
The concert was very good - it was mainly the adult choir that Pam conducts on Monday evenings but there was a section in the middle where Pam's private students were performing on the piano. She had 2 grade 7 pupils and they were very good - as i was listening i wondered to myself 'did i actually sound like that when i was doing my grade 7'- i hope so :-)
After the concert the buffet was opened and then it was disco for the rest of the night, i think it was one of Pam's relations that was doing the disco - he's a proper disco man and had LOADS of songs - i think he had everything that was requested :-) I asked for Music Man and had loads of people doing the silly actions ;-D I spent the early part of the night mainly dancing with Linda and her kids and by the time they left there were loads of people up dancing.
Pam is one of my colleagues so most people who were there who knew me have only seen the working Emma. At one point Roy (Pam's husband) said he was now seeing a whole new side of me that he'd never seen before ;-D I was up on the dancefloor the whole night bopping away with loads of energy and as i was leaving at the end Roy said he'd never known anyone to move as much as me ;-D ;-D I had so much fun, i love parties and there's another one next weekend - a barbecue for Jayne's leaving party :-)
I didn't get home till about 12.40am this morning but i was still up at 6am today to do my normal run :-D My first lap was pretty difficult - i kept getting stitches and i then had to stop to get new batteries from the car for my radio. That was a pretty significant length stop and somehow after that i could run easier :-/ The only problem was that because i'd done so much dancing the night before my legs really complained - i'm still sore quite a few hours later ;-D
When i got to church i discovered it was the yr 6 leavers mass today and that was really nice.
This afternoon i was doing a one-off private lesson in Southport, it's the girl who is in the Southport school which is closed tomporrow. It was good actually, we had no time constraints, neither of us had to be anywhere else so we could take as long as we needed. It ended up that we did an hour and 20 minutes and at the end of it Chantal said she felt a lot happier than she did last Monday so i hope she feels just as positive on Thursday when it's her exam.
I've put my race for life number and label on my t-shirt in preparation for Tuesday evening, I've also de-fuzzed my legs cos i haven't decided whether i'm wearing cropped pants or shorts for the race - if i'm wearing shorts i don't want hairy legs ;-D ;-D
I'm now really tired and hoping to have an early night though i don't know if that will work :-/ I'm going to the health centre first thing in the morning - i'm going to ask if i'm healed enough to swim yet, i also want to know if it's normal that the wound should be taking this long to heal, and i need more dressings anyway - i've only got one left.
Anyway that's it for now - i'll go and sort the dishwasher out so i can go to bed.
On Friday i was praying for good weather in the afternoon cos our samba band was supposed to be playing outdoors for the school summer fair where it's based. Thankfully the weather did stay dry enough, it also meant we could do the yr 3 samba lesson in the playground rather than the classroom. At the end of the school day the fair started and the choir were doing the first performance - they sang a long medley of Beatles songs and they were pretty good :-) They were very choir-like though, with the style of songs they were singing it might have been better if they'd looked a bit more relaxed. Once the choir had finished we had to gather together the samba band - including some of the Parents' Association members who were on stalls and had to leave them long enough to perform. Because the choir had been on for ages I was determined that our samba band would be on for a significant length of time too ;-D I really enjoy doing the samba and i'm glad i've got at least one session a week next academic year :-)
I didn't have a dancing lesson on friday afternoon and yesterday daytime was normal.
After yesterday's dancing Ann made me feel important ;-D I was asking her when she'd be available at the dancing school next friday cos i suspect i'm finishing work early but i don't know yet exactly what time. Ann asked me to tell her when i know for certain and she'll arrange the rest of her day round me ;-D ;-D
Last night was Pam's leaving party in Southport, the only problem was that it was beginning with a concert at 7pm which didn't give me very much time at all to get ready when i was only getting home at about 5.20 and i had to have a shower etc and ideally be leaving at 6.15 :-o I didn't quite make it - i left here at 6.30 and got there late :-$ BUT i wasn't the latest to arrive ;-D
The concert was very good - it was mainly the adult choir that Pam conducts on Monday evenings but there was a section in the middle where Pam's private students were performing on the piano. She had 2 grade 7 pupils and they were very good - as i was listening i wondered to myself 'did i actually sound like that when i was doing my grade 7'- i hope so :-)
After the concert the buffet was opened and then it was disco for the rest of the night, i think it was one of Pam's relations that was doing the disco - he's a proper disco man and had LOADS of songs - i think he had everything that was requested :-) I asked for Music Man and had loads of people doing the silly actions ;-D I spent the early part of the night mainly dancing with Linda and her kids and by the time they left there were loads of people up dancing.
Pam is one of my colleagues so most people who were there who knew me have only seen the working Emma. At one point Roy (Pam's husband) said he was now seeing a whole new side of me that he'd never seen before ;-D I was up on the dancefloor the whole night bopping away with loads of energy and as i was leaving at the end Roy said he'd never known anyone to move as much as me ;-D ;-D I had so much fun, i love parties and there's another one next weekend - a barbecue for Jayne's leaving party :-)
I didn't get home till about 12.40am this morning but i was still up at 6am today to do my normal run :-D My first lap was pretty difficult - i kept getting stitches and i then had to stop to get new batteries from the car for my radio. That was a pretty significant length stop and somehow after that i could run easier :-/ The only problem was that because i'd done so much dancing the night before my legs really complained - i'm still sore quite a few hours later ;-D
When i got to church i discovered it was the yr 6 leavers mass today and that was really nice.
This afternoon i was doing a one-off private lesson in Southport, it's the girl who is in the Southport school which is closed tomporrow. It was good actually, we had no time constraints, neither of us had to be anywhere else so we could take as long as we needed. It ended up that we did an hour and 20 minutes and at the end of it Chantal said she felt a lot happier than she did last Monday so i hope she feels just as positive on Thursday when it's her exam.
I've put my race for life number and label on my t-shirt in preparation for Tuesday evening, I've also de-fuzzed my legs cos i haven't decided whether i'm wearing cropped pants or shorts for the race - if i'm wearing shorts i don't want hairy legs ;-D ;-D
I'm now really tired and hoping to have an early night though i don't know if that will work :-/ I'm going to the health centre first thing in the morning - i'm going to ask if i'm healed enough to swim yet, i also want to know if it's normal that the wound should be taking this long to heal, and i need more dressings anyway - i've only got one left.
Anyway that's it for now - i'll go and sort the dishwasher out so i can go to bed.
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
First half of this week
I'm tired!!
On monday morning i discovered that my first monday school are not in next week - unfortunately i've got a pupil doing grade 6 next week and she NEEDS another lesson :-o I've decided to go and see her privately on sunday for a lesson - it also means we've got as much time as we need.
In the middle of the day i had a school which told me last week they would be on inset this week so i wouldn't be needed, i drove past their school en-route to another and there were kids playing out :-o I was then in a bit of a dilemma - do i go in or not :-/ In the end i figured not - they told me they were off and they don't know i've driven past at playtime, if they say anything next week i'll plead ignorance and say i was told they weren't in.
After work i had my piano lesson as normal but things weren't going right for me for some reason :-( I was getting a bit ratty with myself but not TOO bad.
Last week Helen had suggested we go running after my lesson but she didn't mention it so i thought she'd forgotten. Once the lesson was over she DID mention it and after a brief umming and ahhing we did go out :-) I left Helen to decide on the route and she took us on an approximately 2.5 mile route. I should've been able to do it in one go but there's one road that just seems to go on forever and we stopped part-way along there. As it happens i was glad to stop cos i had a bit of a knot in one of my calf muscles but then after we'd walked for a bit it was fine :-) Once we got back to Helen's we sat chatting in the garden for a while. I was very foolish though, i sat on the grass which was still a bit wet and i got pretty cold 8| In fact when i got back in the car to come home i found i'd lost the feeling in one of my fingers - strange though how it was just one :-/ Damned Raynaud's!
Yesterday i discovered that i'm wanted at both of my tuesday morning schools on 22nd july! In one way it's good cos it means more money but on the other hand it means i've actually got to go to work 8|
When i got to the last school yesterday i was told they didn't want me cos they were doing a rehearsal for an assembly. I intended to go home but got chatting to an IT guy who was working on a laptop in the staffroom - we got talking about Lambananas ;-D ;-D He said he's mad enough to waste a day and the train fare just to go down to London to get the one on Euston Station ;-D
Last night we had a concert in work but thankfully it was only short - it started at 7.15 and was over at 8.20, it was nowhere near as hard work as the last concert we had in a civic suite :-)
This morning in my first school there was an announcement came over the tannoy at about 9:45 (15 minutes before i was due to leave school) for all staff and children to report to the playground for "Rise & Shine". There's a world record attempt happening on friday to get 60,000 children in schools across liverpool all dancing the same thing at the same time so this was a rehearsal for it. I sooooo wanted to go out and join them LOL Unfortunately i didn't have time cos i had to get to my next school by 10:30 and they were only just starting dancing as i left. I really hope the school i'm in at 10:30 on friday are taking part so i can go out and join them - even though i won't know what i'm doing ;-D
When i got to the 3rd school today i was told it was sports day so i wasn't needed - apparently they'd sent a message to my office to cancel the guitars but forgot about me 8| I wasn't too bothered except it was a waste of my time and fuel going down there - especially as i'd had to drive past the place i was going to afterwards to get there. Oh well i went shopping for a bit and bought mself a nice dark pink skirt :-)
After work i was meeting Melanie for a meeting about the lesson she observed last week and it was all very positive :-) Much nicer than last time. As we were going back to the cars i met Katie in the village so i stood chatting to her for a while.
On monday as i got to my after dinner school the kids were saying "bye carmen" to a lady who i presumed was from a dance school cos i'd seen her car with on-car advertising on it in the car park. As i looked round i thought i recognised her as a person i used to go to dance school with as a kid :-o I've looked up her dance school on the internet this evening and sure enough it IS her :-) I've emailed her to say hello - we'll see what happens with it.
I am sooooo fed up at not being able to swim - it's 9 weeks ago today that i was operated on and i am really really getting down about it :-( I'm thinking of going back to the health centre on monday morning to see if i can swim yet even if it's not FULLY healed :-/ I need to go anyway cos i'm running out of dressings 8|
And that's it for now
On monday morning i discovered that my first monday school are not in next week - unfortunately i've got a pupil doing grade 6 next week and she NEEDS another lesson :-o I've decided to go and see her privately on sunday for a lesson - it also means we've got as much time as we need.
In the middle of the day i had a school which told me last week they would be on inset this week so i wouldn't be needed, i drove past their school en-route to another and there were kids playing out :-o I was then in a bit of a dilemma - do i go in or not :-/ In the end i figured not - they told me they were off and they don't know i've driven past at playtime, if they say anything next week i'll plead ignorance and say i was told they weren't in.
After work i had my piano lesson as normal but things weren't going right for me for some reason :-( I was getting a bit ratty with myself but not TOO bad.
Last week Helen had suggested we go running after my lesson but she didn't mention it so i thought she'd forgotten. Once the lesson was over she DID mention it and after a brief umming and ahhing we did go out :-) I left Helen to decide on the route and she took us on an approximately 2.5 mile route. I should've been able to do it in one go but there's one road that just seems to go on forever and we stopped part-way along there. As it happens i was glad to stop cos i had a bit of a knot in one of my calf muscles but then after we'd walked for a bit it was fine :-) Once we got back to Helen's we sat chatting in the garden for a while. I was very foolish though, i sat on the grass which was still a bit wet and i got pretty cold 8| In fact when i got back in the car to come home i found i'd lost the feeling in one of my fingers - strange though how it was just one :-/ Damned Raynaud's!
Yesterday i discovered that i'm wanted at both of my tuesday morning schools on 22nd july! In one way it's good cos it means more money but on the other hand it means i've actually got to go to work 8|
When i got to the last school yesterday i was told they didn't want me cos they were doing a rehearsal for an assembly. I intended to go home but got chatting to an IT guy who was working on a laptop in the staffroom - we got talking about Lambananas ;-D ;-D He said he's mad enough to waste a day and the train fare just to go down to London to get the one on Euston Station ;-D
Last night we had a concert in work but thankfully it was only short - it started at 7.15 and was over at 8.20, it was nowhere near as hard work as the last concert we had in a civic suite :-)
This morning in my first school there was an announcement came over the tannoy at about 9:45 (15 minutes before i was due to leave school) for all staff and children to report to the playground for "Rise & Shine". There's a world record attempt happening on friday to get 60,000 children in schools across liverpool all dancing the same thing at the same time so this was a rehearsal for it. I sooooo wanted to go out and join them LOL Unfortunately i didn't have time cos i had to get to my next school by 10:30 and they were only just starting dancing as i left. I really hope the school i'm in at 10:30 on friday are taking part so i can go out and join them - even though i won't know what i'm doing ;-D
When i got to the 3rd school today i was told it was sports day so i wasn't needed - apparently they'd sent a message to my office to cancel the guitars but forgot about me 8| I wasn't too bothered except it was a waste of my time and fuel going down there - especially as i'd had to drive past the place i was going to afterwards to get there. Oh well i went shopping for a bit and bought mself a nice dark pink skirt :-)
After work i was meeting Melanie for a meeting about the lesson she observed last week and it was all very positive :-) Much nicer than last time. As we were going back to the cars i met Katie in the village so i stood chatting to her for a while.
On monday as i got to my after dinner school the kids were saying "bye carmen" to a lady who i presumed was from a dance school cos i'd seen her car with on-car advertising on it in the car park. As i looked round i thought i recognised her as a person i used to go to dance school with as a kid :-o I've looked up her dance school on the internet this evening and sure enough it IS her :-) I've emailed her to say hello - we'll see what happens with it.
I am sooooo fed up at not being able to swim - it's 9 weeks ago today that i was operated on and i am really really getting down about it :-( I'm thinking of going back to the health centre on monday morning to see if i can swim yet even if it's not FULLY healed :-/ I need to go anyway cos i'm running out of dressings 8|
And that's it for now
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Good things and wobbles
Well this week has been quite interesting - nothing too major though.
On Thursday we had our Wider Ops concert in Lonview and Melanie was coming to observe me for the OU course that i'm supposed to be doing - but not doing a very good job of :-( (purely due to lack of motivation)
Anyway i was leading the samba and we had a short rehearsal beforehand - including the only chance they got to rehearse actually coming into the hall while playing :-o Melanie said she was only staying for the rehearsal cos she had to do something else and she had a very brief chat with me afterwards and sounded very positive :-) I've got to arrange to meet her for a proper de-brief.
Anyway we did the concert - there was mine and Jeni's samba class, 4 of Sue's recorder classes and my flutes and clarinet all performing. I was really impressed with the flutes actually cos they hadn't had a proper rehearsal - last time i'd seen them we thought the concert was going to be next week and then it was brought forward so they did really well on that basis alone. I love samba and afterwards Jeni commented, saying i kept them playing for ages - oops LOL.
On Friday the weather was really nice and when i got to the last school where i'm team-teaching with Jeni again she was already there sitting on the grass so i joined her - with my picnic blanket :-) I think we had about 25 minutes by the time i got there and it was really nice just to sit and chill in a really relaxed atmosphere :-)
When we went in we had another samba concert - this time is was Jeni leading it. That went very well too - again we had to rehearse how the children were coming into the hall and as it was a nice day we had them processing in from outside the hall :-)
Yesterday we had our concert at the cathedral, we were playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony - the choral ( the one with ode to joy at the end :-) ). Obviously we had a rehearsal in the afternoon and wouldn't you know yesterday was the first week for a long time that i was actually finishing work at 1.30 ( for a 2pm rehearsal). For ages i've been finishing at 1pm cos i actually haven't got a 1pm pupil at the moment but yesterday Emily was off so i was covering some of her lessons. I was a bit late for the rehearsal but not too bad - they were still only about halfway down the first page LOL.
After the rehearsal Angela was going home to collect her parents but Sue and i decided to stay in town and Sue's daughter was meeting us later for tea.We had about 50 minutes to kill before Jo was meeting us so we went on a mini lambanana hunt ;-D I actually remembered my camera so we got quite a few pictures :-)
I did a bit of a daft thing when we went for tea - i got very heavy food instead of something light and then regretted it later cos it makes taking deep breaths for playing the flute quite difficult. Last night i was also wearing a new outfit - pretty sparkly top and a new black crinkle skirt with beads on - Emma in a skirt :-o LOL I got quite a few comments on my clothes last night and it was really nice. I was going to wear the top for the last concert but i felt too self-conscious cos the top has only got straps, no sleeves and that was only 3 days after the operation and i had a large dressing on that was really obvious :-( The dressings i'm using now are much smaller and more discreet :-)
This morning on the way to Sefton Park i photographed another couple of Lambananas which are en-route but i haven't uploaded and from yesterday or today to the computer yet.
Well this morning i've been and done my 7 miles run - and didn't feel too bad after it :-o :-) Though i didn't see my running / riding friends :-(
After that was IAM. Hmm. While i was on my way i was convinced i was quitting - i've lost all interest and the group seems to be dying. There was a meeting arranged for after this morning's Mass Guidance so i decided i might as well stay for the meeting and see how it goes.
The meeting happened, with the regional co-ordinator and a couple of people from a neighbouring group to give us some help and advice. I'd already told John (senior observer) how i was feeling about the whole thing - very depressed and fed up etc and John himself and Steve both said they felt the same way. The meeting took a very similar format to previous meetings we've had - lots of talk by one specific bloke who never seems to be there on a sunday morning and lots of words but not much action.
They seem to be moving away from Mass Guidance and definitely moving towards 1:1 observing which i have said all along i have NO interest in. I could feel myself getting quite upset and depressed during the meeting, all this talk about 1:1 and having fixed-length courses and changing the whole setup of our group. I knoew i was on the verge of tears, all through the meeting i was sitting with my legs crossed or with my knees up by my chest and a couple of times i actually put my head on my knees.
As we were leaving the meeting Peter made a light-hearted comment about how happy i looked (not!) and unfortunately that opened the floodgates :-( I'd deliberately not said anything during the meeting cos i could feel how edgy i was but then that was it and i was in tears :'( At first i had Steve asking what was wrong and i couldn't really work out exactly why i was upset. We were standing on the steps and i was trying to be inconspicuous - fat chance of that!! I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders but didn't know who it was, i was just feeling very upset and rather embarrassed. As i was turned round and embraced i discovered it was Shirley - i should've guessed really cos it didn't feel like a bloke and she was the only other female there apart from the Pauline the regional co-ordinator and it's not likely she'd be trying to comfort someone she's only met once or twice before. Anyway, because the floodgates really had been well and truly opened then and i was pretty upset i was herded off to the toilets away from the gaze of many eyes :-$
We spent a while in there with Shirley trying to get me to work out what was upsetting me so much and her telling me some stories of bad patches in her life. I was just beginning to calm down and Peter called through, i didn't catch exactly what he said but Shirley went out and spoke to him for very short while before coming back in to me. Shirley was asking me did i have any other particular stresses in my life at the moment or had anything changed with my routine lately, i mentioned the operation and the fact i haven't been able to swim for 8 weeks now and she said she can understand how i must be feeling cos she goes swimming a lot and hates having to miss it. We'd been speaking about swimming and stuff for a while when Steve called through to see was everything ok, by that point i was reasonably calm so we went out and both Steve and John had waited to see was i ok - aww that is really sweet and i had an idea they might do that actually, they really are nice. We then spent another age in chatting the car park until we started drifting away. Shirley and John left at about the same time and then Steve and stayed for another while longer - ranting and lamenting about the general demise of the group in recent times. We're both of the opinion we'll see how it goes and if things don't improve we're walking away.
On Thursday we had our Wider Ops concert in Lonview and Melanie was coming to observe me for the OU course that i'm supposed to be doing - but not doing a very good job of :-( (purely due to lack of motivation)
Anyway i was leading the samba and we had a short rehearsal beforehand - including the only chance they got to rehearse actually coming into the hall while playing :-o Melanie said she was only staying for the rehearsal cos she had to do something else and she had a very brief chat with me afterwards and sounded very positive :-) I've got to arrange to meet her for a proper de-brief.
Anyway we did the concert - there was mine and Jeni's samba class, 4 of Sue's recorder classes and my flutes and clarinet all performing. I was really impressed with the flutes actually cos they hadn't had a proper rehearsal - last time i'd seen them we thought the concert was going to be next week and then it was brought forward so they did really well on that basis alone. I love samba and afterwards Jeni commented, saying i kept them playing for ages - oops LOL.
On Friday the weather was really nice and when i got to the last school where i'm team-teaching with Jeni again she was already there sitting on the grass so i joined her - with my picnic blanket :-) I think we had about 25 minutes by the time i got there and it was really nice just to sit and chill in a really relaxed atmosphere :-)
When we went in we had another samba concert - this time is was Jeni leading it. That went very well too - again we had to rehearse how the children were coming into the hall and as it was a nice day we had them processing in from outside the hall :-)
Yesterday we had our concert at the cathedral, we were playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony - the choral ( the one with ode to joy at the end :-) ). Obviously we had a rehearsal in the afternoon and wouldn't you know yesterday was the first week for a long time that i was actually finishing work at 1.30 ( for a 2pm rehearsal). For ages i've been finishing at 1pm cos i actually haven't got a 1pm pupil at the moment but yesterday Emily was off so i was covering some of her lessons. I was a bit late for the rehearsal but not too bad - they were still only about halfway down the first page LOL.
After the rehearsal Angela was going home to collect her parents but Sue and i decided to stay in town and Sue's daughter was meeting us later for tea.We had about 50 minutes to kill before Jo was meeting us so we went on a mini lambanana hunt ;-D I actually remembered my camera so we got quite a few pictures :-)
I did a bit of a daft thing when we went for tea - i got very heavy food instead of something light and then regretted it later cos it makes taking deep breaths for playing the flute quite difficult. Last night i was also wearing a new outfit - pretty sparkly top and a new black crinkle skirt with beads on - Emma in a skirt :-o LOL I got quite a few comments on my clothes last night and it was really nice. I was going to wear the top for the last concert but i felt too self-conscious cos the top has only got straps, no sleeves and that was only 3 days after the operation and i had a large dressing on that was really obvious :-( The dressings i'm using now are much smaller and more discreet :-)
This morning on the way to Sefton Park i photographed another couple of Lambananas which are en-route but i haven't uploaded and from yesterday or today to the computer yet.
Well this morning i've been and done my 7 miles run - and didn't feel too bad after it :-o :-) Though i didn't see my running / riding friends :-(
After that was IAM. Hmm. While i was on my way i was convinced i was quitting - i've lost all interest and the group seems to be dying. There was a meeting arranged for after this morning's Mass Guidance so i decided i might as well stay for the meeting and see how it goes.
The meeting happened, with the regional co-ordinator and a couple of people from a neighbouring group to give us some help and advice. I'd already told John (senior observer) how i was feeling about the whole thing - very depressed and fed up etc and John himself and Steve both said they felt the same way. The meeting took a very similar format to previous meetings we've had - lots of talk by one specific bloke who never seems to be there on a sunday morning and lots of words but not much action.
They seem to be moving away from Mass Guidance and definitely moving towards 1:1 observing which i have said all along i have NO interest in. I could feel myself getting quite upset and depressed during the meeting, all this talk about 1:1 and having fixed-length courses and changing the whole setup of our group. I knoew i was on the verge of tears, all through the meeting i was sitting with my legs crossed or with my knees up by my chest and a couple of times i actually put my head on my knees.
As we were leaving the meeting Peter made a light-hearted comment about how happy i looked (not!) and unfortunately that opened the floodgates :-( I'd deliberately not said anything during the meeting cos i could feel how edgy i was but then that was it and i was in tears :'( At first i had Steve asking what was wrong and i couldn't really work out exactly why i was upset. We were standing on the steps and i was trying to be inconspicuous - fat chance of that!! I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders but didn't know who it was, i was just feeling very upset and rather embarrassed. As i was turned round and embraced i discovered it was Shirley - i should've guessed really cos it didn't feel like a bloke and she was the only other female there apart from the Pauline the regional co-ordinator and it's not likely she'd be trying to comfort someone she's only met once or twice before. Anyway, because the floodgates really had been well and truly opened then and i was pretty upset i was herded off to the toilets away from the gaze of many eyes :-$
We spent a while in there with Shirley trying to get me to work out what was upsetting me so much and her telling me some stories of bad patches in her life. I was just beginning to calm down and Peter called through, i didn't catch exactly what he said but Shirley went out and spoke to him for very short while before coming back in to me. Shirley was asking me did i have any other particular stresses in my life at the moment or had anything changed with my routine lately, i mentioned the operation and the fact i haven't been able to swim for 8 weeks now and she said she can understand how i must be feeling cos she goes swimming a lot and hates having to miss it. We'd been speaking about swimming and stuff for a while when Steve called through to see was everything ok, by that point i was reasonably calm so we went out and both Steve and John had waited to see was i ok - aww that is really sweet and i had an idea they might do that actually, they really are nice. We then spent another age in chatting the car park until we started drifting away. Shirley and John left at about the same time and then Steve and stayed for another while longer - ranting and lamenting about the general demise of the group in recent times. We're both of the opinion we'll see how it goes and if things don't improve we're walking away.
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