Thursday 29 January 2009

A Sentimental Moment

Well the operation was a success and I've spoken to Mick since he's come round from the anaesthetic.

If I may be allowed a few moments of sentimentality I would like to give comments on the love section of my 'love, life & the universe' heading.

When you've been with someone through thick and thin for nearly 27 years you create one hell of a bond. Without doubt my life is centred around my husband and as the years go by it only gets stronger. I realise how my father felt when he lost his wife after all those years. Your partner definitely becomes your 'other half' and I know that without Mick I would be totally lost.

The operation itself was only minor but with all anaesthetics there is a risk. No matter how much they told me that he was in excellent health, apart from the problem that he was being operated on, there was always in my mind that certain percentage of risk that could take away from me the one person who is not only my husband; my soul mate but my best friend.

In normal day to day living we moan and groan about one another and we see - and accept - all those foibles that make one another a human being but when it comes down to it I know that when the time comes that one or other of us leaves this life then life will never ever be the same.

But onto a more cheery subject tomorrow - perhaps booking our ferry from Barcelona...

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Sorry if I'm quiet this week

But Mick goes in for his op on Thursday and I always worry. It is only an overnight stay but I won't be happy until I know the operation is a success and he is back home again...

In the meantime I'm studying my Spanish very much and ojalá I should be able to book our ferry soon...

Monday 26 January 2009

Profile photo

Ok changed it again - like me it changes according to my mood :-)

Sunday 25 January 2009

Profile piccie

Well I've decided to have a change. In the photo I've my natural hair colouring and I'm a few years younger whilst now I have long blond hair, but this is how I still feel.

You see the years may come and go but inside we still remain the same...

It's been a while!!

Crikey it's been a few days since I posted.

Well to start with work has been absolutely hectic and I've been so tired by the end of the day and secondly I've been working on a present for my mum.

My mum is 82 in the next few days and my daughter and I have put together about 800 photos to go onto a digi frame for her to enjoy as she loves photos.

Well I've been scanning in old photos and then resizing them so that they fit the frame and then getting them sorted so that they are random and flip from one year to another (with lots of surprising old photos too). It has taken absolutely ages and the eyestrain and arm strain (from using the mouse) has made it almost impossible to do anything else on my laptop.

But I'm there now - it's all ready for the giving and I hope she likes it and gets great pleasure from looking at all the old pictures xxx

Friday 16 January 2009

Barcelona

I have a love/hate relationship with Barcelona.

I love the Spanish and I love Barcelona - we drive through it each year as we go to and fro to Mallorca - but I hate the driving through it!

After 21 years of travelling to Mallorca each year we finally decided 2 years ago to stop flying and drive instead. With all the changes at airports and the fact that you can't smoke anywhere at all while having to hang around for longer and longer we thought we would give driving a go.

Well Mick is used to driving on the continent (I'm not!!!!) so off we went. Going down through France is easy and the roads are brilliant - as are the facilities. But getting to the ferry at Barcelona is the problem. The first year we had problems finding where to go; the second year getting onto the ferry was easy; but on both occasions our problem is that main roundabout and getting off the ferry and heading back to France. We always seem to get lost.....

The main roundabout (forgive my ignorance I really will look at the name of it this year, if I can open my eyes) is quite frightening to me. There is traffic coming from all directions and they are all impatient and eager to get on their way - ready to toot their horns at you for the slightest reason.
Then we always seem to take the wrong road supposedly heading for France but undoubtedly always ending up back where we started.

I've started to get a phobia about that roundabout and I just say "keep me away from the roundabout" as we go round it for the umpteenth time!

Well another problem last year was when we got sent out from a different exit from the port. We headed towards the direction we felt we should be taking but I'm not too sure if we should have gone across that flashing amber light!!!!!!!! When the police car came up behind us I thought we were going to get booked but he just looked; shrugged his shoulders and carried on chasing a car that he was after.

So today I've purchased a book "Motoring in Spain" so that I can read up on all the laws and traffic signs etc. Maybe if I know what we should be doing I won't panic so much.

Of course we did make it home - or else I wouldn't be writing this now :-)

Hospitals

I hate hospitals - well I don't really, I would just rather not have to ever go near one!

Mick has to go to see a Consultant tonight to find out when he can have his minor op. Well I know it's only minor but it still worries me when he has to have them (this is the third one so far!!).

I was chatting to a young work colleague and saying how I hated hospitals when she asked why? The only logical reason I can give is the fact that as you get older and experience more and more life it seems that the numbers of people that go into hospital and don't come out gets higher each year...

I guess it's a bit like my mum - she's 82 and her husband is 92 - and whenever I chat to her it seems they are going to another funeral! It has to be a fact of life that the older you get the more you have to cope with illnesses and death.

Sorry don't mean to sound gloomy - just realistic :-)

Monday 12 January 2009

Spanish Courses

Well as I was at home today - see previous entry - I decided to scout around on the Internet for any new Spanish courses. There's a lot out there but boy aren't they expensive!

Since I've been teaching my friend Spanish I've discovered I know a lot more than I think I do - and my pronunciation's not bad either :-) However what I do lack is the practice of speaking it aloud. So I was looking for something online that I could do while sitting at my laptop. I did try out a language course that is based in Madrid but the site wasn't very user friendly so I can't see me doing much more of that. Then I looked at several 'immersion' type courses but some were astronomically priced.

Then came the decision about how I grade myself. You see a beginners course is too easy, so would an intermediate course be better? Again I was not sure as I expect depending on what course you did in the beginning they probably taught you differently to the ones that are advertising the intermediate courses. Oh dear....

I then found a Spanish podcast - now that was fun. It entailed listening to Spanish being spoken slowly; quicker; then at normal speed and you had to answer questions, join in conversations and play games. Added to that - it was free - but you had to keep listening to their advertising at specific intervals.

So I'm still non the wiser and I'm still looking. So what do I want? Well I guess I want a programme/course that I can do online or on my computer; I want it to hold my interest and I need it to make me talk - not just listen. I need to practise the spoken word more than anything - and to get used to listening at normal speed.

Last summer I promised Pilar that by the time I see her this summer I would be better at holding normal conversations with her and that is what I intend to do.

Any ideas would be appreciated????

Dentists!

I took the day off today to go for a dentist appointment. It was to be a minor filling - well a repair of an old filling. The appointment was for 8 am so there I was bright and early just about to leave the house when I got a phone call to say that the dentist had phoned in sick so I would have to re-schedule.

Unfortunately by that time my last coach had left for London so I just stayed at home and used my days holiday as purely that and not to have my teeth seen to.

Now it will entail taking another days holiday to re-schedule my appointment - the way things are working out I'll end up running out of holiday!!! First it was my fault because my car wouldn't start and now this time the dentist is sick.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get the filling repaired...

Wednesday 7 January 2009

Health Kick

I've given myself a bit of a health kick up the ....

Since my Dad died last April I've gradually put on some extra weight (guess it had to be comfort eating) and I would now say that I'm at least a stone heavier than I should be. So that's it, got to stop now, and must pull myself together. No more excuses the reason is purely that I'm eating too much stuff that's not good for me.

So here we go then; I want to get on my Wii Fit without the little 'Mii' going "ouch" :-)

However talking about the Wii Fit - at least it's showing me as being 5 years younger than I am and the Wii Sport shows me as being 20 years younger than I am - so I must be doing something right!!!

I just want to be able to wear my clothes without them feeling tight and to get back into some of those that no longer fit. So 2009 is the time to take back control of my life.

Monday 5 January 2009

Snow

Well we awoke this morning to find a light covering of snow - only about an inch deep, but quite a surprise all the same.

Walking down the road in the dark with everything covered in white was quite pretty, but very cold. This evening what remained of the snow was now turning into very dangerous and slippery black ice.

How is it that as a child you quite happily run around in the snow without a care in the world but as you get older you slowly make your way aware that at any time you could end up sliding and ending up on your backside on the ground!

I guess I'd never make a skier :-)

Sunday 4 January 2009

New Template almost finished

Well it's almost done and now it's time for bed as 5.30 will soon come round and it's back to a full working week.

Site under revised construction

Please excuse the loss of my widgets while I re-design my site. Should be finished today - hopefully....

New Year, New Look

Well I'm playing around on my test site trying to sort out a brighter, more cheerier layout for my blog. Much as I love the dream scheme of this template I think that with the gloom that is around during these times of 'credit crunch' that I want a more cheerful looking blog.

I've also been considering the fact that the photos I put on my blog don't look so good in black and white and need a background that will highlight them. I intend to put on more photos - especially when we go on our travels in our motorhome in April.

So 2009 - here's to a brighter future.

Thursday 1 January 2009

New Year Resolutions

Well I'm not one who normally makes new year's resolutions (I never keep them) but this year I have. So to remind myself throughout the year these are the two resolutions I make at the start of 2009.

1. Stop being so careful and start living life. This is because I'm a very careful person and like to think things through and look at all the outcomes of something before I go ahead and do it - unless of course my impulsiveness kicks in and then I just do it first and worry about it after :-)

2. No 'what ifs'. You know what I mean - the usual thing where you are thinking about doing something but up crops the "but what if..." I guess this one ties up with the first resolution but I really have to stop worrying and start living...

Of course there will be the normal resolutions that fall by the wayside such as 'get fit/lose weight' etc.

Oh well see how long these last ...