Sun is Shining, Weather is HOT!

Hello people,

So its very hot here at the moment and I'm taking refuge inside. Also we're worried I may have actually broken my toe, cos a 6pack of cans fell out of the cupboard on to it today. Today is meant to be (or was it yesterday?) the hottest day of the year and we were doing a boot sale. There was no shade. I made a measly little £14, it all adds up in the end. Due to busy schedulage, we can't do another one til 31st July, so maybe I'll get a bit more £££ then?

Well recently I was in London a lot, the most significant of which was for Keswick Planning Day. Keswick is now a mere 6 days away (well I travel up to Ruth's on 16th!) so I need to get my skates on which planning what to take. Its always a fine balencing act for Keswick, cos it may well rain on one day, may well be sweltering the next and you may well sit in a wet patch in the tent neccessitating a change of shorts the third day, and so on... Pretty much if you take wellies, waterproof, vest tops and sandals you'll be fine!
I also need to take a wee trip to Mr Tesco's little emporium to get colouring books and make 7 cardboard crosses. Cool beans. Ruth and I will make cake to take with us to Keswick also, so that'll be yumtastic.

Last week also saw the last of the invigilation that I've done at Helenswood this summer. I had 31 Yr6 girls for a morning of CATs tests while there were at Helenswood for their taster days. I loved them, they were so cool (apart from the crying ones eeek!) and I had really good dealings with the teaching staff. One of them asked me if I *was* a teacher cos she reckoned I had a really nice manner and good way of explaining things! Cool!!! I was sad to leave them > I am sad.

What else? Oh yar... My room is almost all packed up in preparation for the redecoration spree to occur! There are a lot of boxes. Most of which are now living under my bed or causing a tripping hazard on the landing! I couldn't believe that I could a rather large box up with stuff, look around the room and not see any difference :-( Oh well, I'll press on.

Whilst all of this has been occuring, we have, of couse been watching the World Cup! Spain beat Germany, Holland beat Uruguay and now they'll play each other in the final tomorrow night. Should be exciting times.

Ummmm that's it I think, I may blog before Keswick, otherwise it'll be a post-Keswick blog when I next touch base! Have fun and stay safe in the sun! Adios.

Three Good Things In A Row

Hmmm, so I'm blogging again so soon, what could have happened that is so good and so blog-worthy?

- Footie
Well for a start, England are through to the last 16 in the World Cup!!! Hooray for Defoe our saviour! France and Italy are out and can you believe both finished last in their groups. Ooopsie.

-Guide Bookage!
My cool Dubrovnik Guide Book arrived today from Waterstone's! So, it being a nice day, I sat out in the garden and read it. The one excellent thing about it is that it is laid out in terms of itineraries, so you know how long it'll take and exactly where you need to go to get to somewhere and al of the POI along the way: good views/swimming holes/recommended places to eat/shops/bus stops etc. It also included a really good sized map that is separate and has all of the itineraries plotted out on it. Should be very useful!

-Holiday (and other) Shopping...
"That's a bit premature!" I hear you say! Well, yes it is, but when you have very limited funds to begin with, you have to buy things when they are cheapest and when you can get the best deal on them. So when I go to work over the weekend, I'll be buying my new camera, a new case (cos I've never really had one to go on my belt)and 3 floating shelves for my room when we finally get around to sorting it all out. We work at a different speed to the rest of the world, here in Hastings, you see. It's equal to one eighth of a snail's pace (lol)!

So that's my news. Oh, also, if we're talking about my room, the floorplan has been finalised!!!! Oooh I'm happy! The only potential cloud on the horizon is that England face Germany in their next World Cup match. Hmmmm.

As ever, I'll report back when there's news. Bye bye.

June-atron!

Hello again, cyber friends!

This blog is for all of the other cool stuff that has happened or will happen in June, apart from Chris and Izzie's Wedding, which has a separate blog entry! Ok, so what has happened??

- Work!
So, beginning on June 7th, so the day after I got back from Soton, I began invigilating again. Not at Cantel, but at a school near to me in sunny Hastings called Helenswood. The first week was at the Lower School (Yrs 7-9) for their end of year tests - it was also a good way to integrate new and old team members etc. Now the GCSEs and A Levels have been in full swing and are actually beginning to wind down a little, but I've done some big and little exams, invigilated solo(!) (with 3 extra timers) and dealt with a girl who had to come out all together due to being sick!

In other work, I've been Argosing it. That's much the same as ever really. We have a sweep stake for the World Cup going on, and guess which team I picked out?? Ivory Coast! But anything can happen, as you'll see from my next point.....

- World Cup!
As anyone who hasn't been living in a cupboard for the past 10 days or so will know, England managed 2 draws (USA 1-1 and Algeria 0-0) so far. Now nothing but a win will do over Slovenia this afternoon (eeek!) but I will be in an exam, so don't tell me what happens! In other news, France is out (I think) and so is South Africa - the first host nation not to advance from the group stages. So we'll see, today is the decider for England. . . .

- Home Improvements
Well these have - albeit slower than the average snail - finally begun. On the flat-pack front, I now also have my wardrobe, just the bed and floating shelves to go! We're having to sort out the garage, shed, loft, spare room etc. This could be a long job.

- Holiday Plans :-)
So YEAH! Sarah, Tom and I have booked our (certain to be) epic trip to Dubrovnik for 14th-21st September. We're staying at Hotel Petka which is a stone's throw from the cruise ship port! We're looking forward to seeing and experiencing all that Croatia has to offer and spending some good times together too! Our flight leaves Gatwick at 5.55am, so we'll be up way before dawn for that, and we fly back to Stanstead - both with EasyJet.
The 'rents and I did a bootsale the other weekend and I made a good amount of money for the holiday fund. The £10 note I found on the floor in Sainsbury's also went in there! As I type, my Dubrovnik Guide Book (2010 ed) is on its way from Waterstone's. It only cost me £3.04 with Free Delivery and using my Waterstone's points, so bargain! Despite having resolved to save up for this trip, as I begin to think about it, a few things I want to buy have cropped up(!), so much for saving!!
There's this "WDW Memories" book I want for reading material, a silicone case and wall charger for my iPod, a new camera and a new roller holdall! Not much at all!

- Upcoming Events
Next weekend I go to London for the Keswick planning day, and by that time it'll only be a couple of weeks until actual Keswick! In the meantime, there's Argosing and invigilating to be done, all of which will help the Holiday and Home Improvement Funds!

- iTunes
So, Argos had this special offer that I couldn't resist. Buy 2 £15 iTunes vouchers for £20! With discount etc I got £30 worth of iTunes vouchers for £16! Now I have to decide what to spend it on... New tunes for all the travelling I'll be doing in the near future!

Right, so that's about it I think. I'll blog again as items of note occur, unlike Tom who never blogs at all!
Loveage!

The Making of Chris and Izzie White

Hello.

So I promised to blog and then I kept putting it off, but that just leads to bad habits! I also couldn't be sure I'd remember everything, so I'm doing this separate to my "June-atron" blog. Here we go...

Ok, so the main event of this blog is that Izzie and Chris got married! But this also coincided with my first visit to Soton in nearly a year and my first visit to the mighty Playzone! On with the tale!

Train via Waterloo to Soton, met Tom at Waterloo. Ruth picked us up in her car(!) from the new, improved, shiny Southampton Airport Parkway and we headed straight off to Netley Beach via a Fish n Chip shop! We ate our dinner of various fish and chips on the grass over-looking the water, which was lovely, and then took a stroll along the little pebbley beach. There was a man water-skiing which was fun to watch, especially as he was towing someone on a rubber ring! We sat on the beach for a while and threw some stones - I once again proved that I am a weedy girl cos I can't reach the water with most stones I throw!

After the beach we hopped back in to the car and headed down the motorway to Portsmouth and to Playzone! We don't have any photos of there, cos there's nowhere safe to put a camera etc. But this is what happened...
Its basically like a big childrens play centre, with all of the typical features that I have no idea of the name of... Well massive slides for a start, split levels, rope bridges, rollers, the list goes on. We were there from 8pm til 11pm when they shut!
Basically, don't ever wear anything more than a vest top and shorts (and the obligatory socks!) there cos you get well hot with all of the running up and down and around the place! We also got through about 2 bottles of drink each!

The middle of Playzone is dominated by 2 massive slides; blue and red. The blue has a crest in the middle, but the red is just sheer drop and has two heights!! It took me at least 5mins to get up the courage to do the blue one, but afterwards I was hooked! As for the red one, it was my idea to actually try it, and I lead the way, but then I chickened out and had to go down with a someone I'd never met before holding my hand. Good times! I spent a lot of time on the blue slide, it was my fav, and at the end of it you crash in to massive foam blocks to stop you.
Tom and I also got in to trouble for climbing up the other slide. This one is very bumpy and you go down it on a sack, so its not that steep! We climbed up and then got told off, but our "punishment" was to put our socks back on and slide back down.

Basically we had lots of fun running around, taking turns in leading, climbing up and down, resting, drinking, observing our fellow patrons: one of which ripped his trousers open in a rather revealing place and others of which (girls) were falling out of their tops! All in all a very enjoyable evening and a great way to spend my first evening back in Soton with Gill and Gray.

On to the day of the wedding... Before that, a word about our sleeping arrangements: Tom was sleeping in Ruth's room @ No31 and Ruth and I were sleeping at No11 where Ruth's friends live (one of which, Helen, was away for the weekend and very kindly allowed us the use of her room!).
Ruth and I were up around 7am and headed straight up to No31. I showered and then got some food for our brekkie at One Stop. Meanwhile Ruth cooked some bacon and had her own shower. When we'd done that, we woke Tom and had bacon sarnies for brekkie. Tom then showered while I got dressed in my dress and did hair/make-up/handbag etc. Ruth very kindly drove us to the church and the service began at 12.30pm, before kick off we had a good chance to see and catch up with people which was very niceeee!

Service was lovely of course. The Church looked lovely too, I loved the flowers throughout. I also totally loved the purple/pink/silver theme that was everywhere inc invites, decorations, bridesmaids' dresses etc. Chris was wearing a purple tartan kilt and that looked very effective indeed against the rest of the coloured backdrop! Paul Alcock did the whole srvice and Andrew Page did the Address. It was really sweet to see bride and groom very emotional as they took their vows!
After the service, it was up to the top hall at ABC for a lovely cream tea, and a good old chat/chinwag etc with everybody you haven't seen for ages! Everything tasted amazing and it was a really nice part of the day!
Then it was over to the park accross the road for the wedding photos, before we headed to the Wedding Breakfast at Otterbourne Village Hall. Tom and I were lucky to get a lift from Hannah, so after the photos, we headed back to West Quay to the cars. Once we had made sure that Lydia had her boot down(!) we headed off.

The Wedding Breakfast and Reception were both at Otterbourne Village Hall, and we got there around 4pm, got glasses of bucks fizz and adjourned to the gardens for even more chatting etc and hearing all about the jobs that people have got now/their married lives together/other important news: Emma being pregnant and Rachel being poorly and not able to make it :-( More bucks fizz flowed - as did the conversation - as we waited to be called in to sit down to eat. This happened at 5pm and I have to say that the tables were decorated amazingly!! Lovely little trees with flowers in, set on a mirror plate, were in the middle. Around the outside of this were scattered hundreds of little gems in purple, pink and clear. The favours were tiny gift boxes of purple or silver, filled with heart-shaped jelly beans. Place cards, chair ribbons and the like, all fitted the theme!

We had a lovely wine selection on the table, as well as OJ and water, and the food was wonderful. Chicken in bacon, with a cheese sauce was the main course - followed by a choice for dessert of cheesecake or profiteroles! Awesome. Then there was tea/coffee and mints and then there were the speaches! Izzie's Dad went first, followed by the Best Man and then the Groom. Speaches are great, cos you really get to hear people speak from the heart on what is a very emotional day!
Lastly, the cake was cut! Again this was so cool - a work of art by a couple from ABC, as so much of the other work had been too. By this time, the rest of the people had arrived for the evening reception, so we headed back outside while the room was transformed in to the disco! Outside, we took it in turns to write in the Guest Book, which is an absolutely brilliant idea, and must have been wonderful for Izzie and Chris to read together! My own message of course, referenced Mandy's 21st, where I was rather a spare wheel, as sparks began to fly between the two of them!

Disco time followed, with all of the old favourites, and some more modern ones that fitted very well. The first dance was just great to see and then everyone got in on the act as more people arrived and the dancing got underway. Us Uni singles (mostly girls!) formed a big circle to dance in, which took up half the floor! We danced a lot, had a drink or two, had a laugh together and just enjoyed the company. Lastly, it came time for the happy couple to leave and we created a tunnel for them, armed with confetti and party poppers! They got in to a car full of balloons and headed off to honeymoon in Pembrookeshire. Phew what a tiring day, and that's just as a guest!

Ruth, being the star that she is, came to pick us up just after 11pm and we got back to Sirdar eventually (roadworks meant we took a major scenic route!) and fell in to bed. Before that though, I made myself sort out my clothes/bag/stuff so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning - as we were working on a tight schedule! So that brings me to the 3rd day of my whirlwind visit to Soton! Sunday. Right. Another early start for Ruth and I whilst Tom had a lie in. We headed off to the ABC 9.15 service with the girls from No11, this was great to be back in, seeing lots of people, hearing AP preaching etc.

Then it was back to No31 to get Tom up and I headed over to Mayfield to see Ellie! I was going to meet up with Harriet, but she was ill, so that was sad, but I suppose my schedule, to get to the airport etc was quite tight! So I had a lovely drink and a chat with Ellie and we chewed the general cud over job opportunities/the PGCE/future plans and all of our news. We had gorgeous sunshine - as we had had for the entire weekend thankfully - so we sat outside. Eliie then took me to the station, which was very nice of her, and I headed off home. Muchos :-(

There ended the weekend! It was very full, very fun and long overdue to be back in Soton and so I really enjoyed it and I wish Izzie and Chris all the best for their new life together.

Here I am to blog!

Hello sun worshippers, how are you this fine Toooosday? I'm sitting on my back step (so I can hardly see the screen) soaking up the harmful UV rays from the atmosphere and blogging for your general information/amusement.

So I'm quite happy at the mo, I've got a nice tan, Sarah, Tom and I planning to potentially go away on holiday in early September, I'm going to be invigilating at Helenswood this summer (earning the money required for such things as holidays) and I'm working Sundays at Argos, much to the delight of the Sunday-shopping British public. It seems that a few people are moving onwards and upwards from Argos at the mo...Cat is taking leave to try out a new job, so she may be leaving us and Rachael (so I hear on the Argos grapevine) also may have a new job... Sounds cool to me.

Mum and I started this new training course yesterday, so we'll be working towards an ITQ, which maybe is something similar to an NVQ in ICT, who knows? May as well if the JobCentre are paying for it!!

In other news, I head off to Soton next weekend for Izzie and Chris' wedding at ABC, I did their pressie a while ago, but must remember the card etc. I also have no handbag or shoes to wear with the dress :-( which needs to be sorted out before I go! I am much looking forward to that indeed.

Last night we had our first BBQ of the year which was nice and continuing in that sort of summer theme, later this week Mum and I are going to drinks hosted by the Chairman of the local Conservative Association at his house, to celebrate the election of Amber Rudd, Hastings' first Conservative MP for 13 years!!! We also went to the annual Mayor making last week, which was a good event to go to but sadly was blighted by the fact that the new Mayor, her deputy and the leaders of the council are now all Labour :-(

I don't think there's a lot else to report of great interest at this current time, but there'll; be things to update you on after they've happened.
Right I'm off to research things and places for our little holiday. Whoop whoop, fun in the sun!

Until next time, take care in the sun!
**********************
UPDATE 26th May 9.40am

There is no more sun... :-(

Goodbye Gordon, helllllooooo coalition

So Gordon Brown resigned, first as leader of the Labour Party and then as PM. This was last night. Then the Queen invited David Cameron to form a government and he said yes (funnily enough!). Today is emerges that Nick Clegg will be his Deputy.

I'm hopeful. I want to see what they have in store for us and if they can keep the best interests of the country first and foremost in their heads.

That's all I have to say really on that matter, I just wanted to record it for posterity.

In other news I have my interview for invigilation at Helenswood on Friday. I'm not sure what it'll be like really, I keep comparing it to Cantell, which is a bad idea cos they were quite casual there and I get the feeling that dear old Helenswood are not. We shall see...

Ruth got older, Tom got dunked, Sarah got nervous, Gordon Brown was rejected and I....

...was there to see it all!!! Whoop.

So, hello, blog readers. How are you doing? I'm quite cold as its raining outside and slightly disgruntled as the dogs are taking up the whole sofa and I'm having to make do with the armchair! I'm reporting on all of the recent happenings as I'm bored of listing random crap on eBay that I don't want and I doubt anyone else will either.

Firstly I'll report on my long weekend in London... (1st-3rd May)

Two very good reasons for going (not thay I actually need any!): Ruth's 21st b'day and Tom's baptism.

So I got to London at 11.30am on Saturday and met Ruthie at Waterloo and we tubed it to our hotel on Tavistock Square - called, oddly enough, the Tavistock Hotel. We dumped our bags since we couldn't check in til 2pm and headed back out in to London, straight to Oxford Street to have a look around the shops. We bought matching flip flops as you can see here... ... in M&S, where we also got some Kir Royale and Percy Pigs!
After a few hours we headed back tot the hotel, checked in, got our stuff and headed up to our room on the 7th floor. Great views of the Square and the BT tower from the window. Later, after consuming half the Percy Pigs and most of the Kir Royale whilst watching TV, we headed off to our free dinner at one of the Tavistock's sister hotels.
Service and food were both excellent here! We shared 2 starters; one of melon and one Prawn Cocktail. Then it was time for the carvery!! I had yummy lamb, with gravy, yorkie, roasties and veg. Man was that nice! For afters we had profiteroles. Did I mention it was free too!!

Day 2 saw us head back to Oxford St to get a few bits and pieces in the morning. However, because it was Sunday, most of the shops don't open til 12! We loitered in KFC drinking Fruit Shoots until we could get into Primark! Then it was back to the hotel - change clothes, collect presents/cards etc and set off for Waterloo. From Waterloo we headed to the little known town of Ashford where Tom lives and then to Ashford Baptist Church.
Once there we saw Sarah and her parents, plus all of Tom's family and Lois. Now, Sarah and I had been asked to read a verse (read passage) but didn't realise we actually to be Tom's sponsers! Sarah was nervous, but it all went well. We went up straight after his testimony to read Proverbs 3:1-12 from the Message which I love and suits Tom so well! Then of course there were the actual baptisms and lots of singing. Good times.
After the service we all went back to Tom's house for some well nice food and watched Tom opening his various presents/cards (all except mine cos he saved mine for his b'day). There were lots of books as well as the t-shirt Ruth got him. "Banana on my mind"
We left just before 9pm and got the train back to London, before heading back to the hotel. We sat in 1st class most of the way back as the guard said we could! I made sure to get it in the pic:

So that was the end of Day 2! On our last day, we began again with an awesome English brekkie at the hotel. Admittedly I only had bacon and sausages on both days with some Apple juice, but it was still well yum! As it was actually Ruth's birthday, she wore 2 b'day badges and the jewellery I'd bought for her! We were going to walk through Hyde Park (having seen Buckingham Palace) to Harrods but it was seriously raining so we got the tube straight to Knightsbridge. Our destination of course was Harrods and we spent a lovely couple of hours in there browsing everything and even saw the Diana and Dodi Memorial and Memorial Fountain. I bought Buster and Molly a cake each from the Canine Cookie Counter - got to love the novelty value there!
From Harrods we headed straight to Covent Garden! As we walked down from the Tube to the market there were plenty of street artists, including a Captain Jack Sparrow and a gorilla. We had a quick wander through the actual Covent Garden Market and then went in to a few actual shops including the Radley shop, Fat Face (where they were having VAT free!) and then ate waffles at an outdoor vendors to keep warm!
Finally though, the time came for us to have to head back to the Tavistock to collect our bags and then head off to Waterloo for the final time. Sad times. I wish I could go to London for a mini-holiday every weekend. Although if I heard one more announcement saying that the Jubilee Line was closed, I may have gone ga ga.

Ruth and I parted ways at Waterloo at about 3.30pm and I made it home for about 5pm. Ruth had work the next day so we couldn't be much later. That night there was rather a lot of sleeping to be done! It was a really lovely weekend, especially since I got to see Sarah, Tom and Ruth all in one weekend and in one place! Shouldn't be too long before I see Ruth and Tom again though, as Chris and Izzie's wedding at ABC is soon and Ruth said I could stay with her.

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Of course by the time I was back from London, it was the 4th May and only 2 days until the general election. Predictions said that we would see Labour lose a lot of support but not enough of it would go to the Conservatives for them to have a majority - we were expecting a hung parliament. Boy did we got one. The Conservatives got a very respectable 304 seats and in other shocking news, Brighton elected our first ever Green MP! The whole of the SouthEast: Sussex, Kent and Essex is now blue - Labour lost every single seat!!! Hooray.

Safe in the knowledge that my postal vote had been done a while ago, I stayed up til 2.15am watching the first election results come in and then the TV went straight back on at 9am, but by then it was already too late - the hung parliament had been declared, there weren't enough seats left undeclared for David Cameron to get a majority.

The latest news is that David Cameron has offered a coalition with the LibDems. I absolutely loved his speech where he announced it and really look forward to the possibility of him and Nick Clegg being in control together. Only problem? Technically speaking Gordo is still PM. He is expected to attempt to make a government in alliance with some other parties. Word on the street (and the TV) is that he wants an alliance with the Cleggites too, but they are sticking with what they said befor ethe election: the party with the largest number of seats/votes has the right tto seek to form a government first - and that is the Tories. Phew, politics is hard work!

They had a little break in their negotiations today as Brown, Cameron and Clegg joined Prince Charles and others to lay wreathes in honour of the 65th Anniversary of VE Day. This, IMHO, is a good thing. I'll be watching very closely to see what goes on next - who says what, offers what etc. Hopefully all will be revealled by the Queen's Speach (well it'd better be, cos that's when she opens Parliament!) and we won't have another election.
If we do however, I hope to High Heavens that they don't cack it up like they did on the 6th when thousands of people in London, Manchester, Sheffield and other big cities were turned away from Polling Stations at 10pm because there had been too many people trying to vote (up to 84% turnout in some areas!). On the other hand, some Polling Stations stayed open beyond 10pm which technically illegal soooooo who is right and who is wrong?

Anyway, this blog is long enough so I'll come in to land here. I'm off to work tomorrow, so ought to get on with things here. Until next time...don't keep your wand in your back pocket, its dangerous! :-p