Samhain

I hope all the readers of my blogg have a happy, safe and blessed Samhain!

Today is the day that the veil between life and death are thinnest so I hope that everyone who celebrates this Sabbat feels their lost friends and relatives feel that bit closer today!

Online shopping

Do you enjoy shopping online?  I do!

Want to get a cashback reward from it?

I'm with 2 places and I recommend them both!

Nectar gives you points on your shopping at Sainsbury's and loads of others - just hand over your Nectar card in the shop or activate it online and away you go!  I've been with them for at least 1.5 decades!  You can also get points for just installing and using the Nectar toolbar... the maximum right now is 100 valid searches which is 50 points which amounts to 25p a month - money for nothing!

The other one is Quidco where you register your debit cards and you get a percentage of each shop online back... my favourite so far is Simply Supplements - I spent £30 there and because I went through Quidco first, I'll get £5 back in a couple of weeks!

It's free to join Quidco, but if you let them have £5 of your annual cashback then they will upgrade instantly to a Premier member which means that certain shops give you cashback faster - it doesn't come out of your bank account, but your cashback - definitely recommend it!

Steve's Yule gift arrived yesterday

When I asked Steve what he wanted for Yule, he said "a gold speedboat please".

By my reckoning that would have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds so I had a look online and got him a mini clockwork speedboat which turned up yesterday afternoon.

Apparently it was really funny!

He'll have to think up a new gift idea now!  lol

My poor knee!

I’ll be up and down like a flippin’ yo-yo today and my knee is already killing me!

I’ve walked Mitzi, got 3 cans of Diet Coke out of the box then sat down to relax for all of 15 minutes before going back into the kitchen for another 3 cans.

I’ll be up again to answer the door to Steve’s carer and you can bet that within minutes of me sitting back down on the poof (sp?) I’ll be answering the door to a courier then up again for Steve’s sticky bandages with the post!

That’s another thing that pisses me off… Steve’s got the whole sofa to himself and he let’s Mitzi get up whenever she wants to but I'm stuck with the poof and I get the blame for everything even though I’m not Steve’s carer but he’s mine!

I give up!

Our spectacular little girl

Mitzi, our adorable rescue Westie, has just made me so happy and so proud of her!

It's only taken a week or 10 days, but she now knows "roll over" too!  It was the same when I trained her to "beep beep" too!  She's an intelligent little puppy (OK, so she's not technically a puppy any more, but she will always be a pup to me) and I've really enjoyed training her too!

Such an amazing little girl!

Feeling really proud of myself right now!

I’m addicted to spending and I’ve already spent over £700 this month so was hoping not to spend anything else until December but I found an amazing Pagan shop that I could easily have spent a small fortune in and I could hear my addiction niggling away at me to spend just a little bit in there to see what it is like and it almost convinced me to open an account with the site and I was soooo close to getting my debit card out and spending “a little bit on a couple of bits of jewellery” but there’s an amazingly huge crystal that’s 38cm x 30cm x 26cm and weighs 28kg and it’s one of a kind but it costs £720 and I know that if I opened an account or bought the couple of bits of jewellery, that crystal would find it’s way into my possession at the same time!

So I closed the browser window and denied the craving to go back to “have a look at the opal rings” and started typing this instead... I just need to get through to Yule then I’ll treat myself to it if it’s still there and I’m still comfortably enough in credit at the bank to get it... this is going to be such a hard few months!

You and me, spending addiction, you and me... I’ll win!

That's a lotta money to spend so quickly!

I've just totted up how much I've spent already in October... £706.82!

October and December are expensive months for me  lol

I'm still comfortably in credit at the bank though, and if I don't spend anything else in October or November, (which will, in theory, be easy because of NaNo) I'll have well over £1,000 to spend on Yule gifts and I'll go in to 2015 still comfortably in credit!

Feeling so good about my spending right now!

Black cats

On Mitzi's walk this morning she saw a totally black cat and wanted to make friends with it.

The cat wasn't interested  :-(

Mitzi's little tail was wagging so much and the cat just looked at her like she was a piece of dirt.

Poor Mitzi  :-(

S'not me, it's...

... the temperature of the living room!

I'd been really hot with my coat on when I walked Mitzi so I went without my coat today and it was a refreshing temperature outside but as soon as I opened the front door at the end of our walk, I was hit by an almost overwhelming wall of heat!

I came into the living room and it was even hotter in here!

So, I'm going to walk Mitzi without my coat on for the next few days and leave the living room door open while we are out to see if that helps.

You watch me forget now!  lol

Makes me grateful that...

... the bloke at the end of the road hasn't threatened me or Mitzi and that all he's done is mutter and mumble at us when we go for our morning walk.

Why? 

Well, Steve's watching one of those 'nightmare neighbours' programmes on the TV atm and the neighbours this programme is filming have been threatened with violence, shouted at, sworn at and generally abused by the neighbour!  They've had an 8 foot high concrete wall put up on their property by the neighbour and he's now assaulted the neighbour too!

The police have already advised Steve about what I should do and say next time the neighbour decide he owns the street, I'm just grateful that he's left us alone for the last few days!

You definitely get what you pay for!

Steve found an online shop that sells savory pastry pies and we've just had a pie each for lunch...

OMG!

Totally yummy!

They are expensive and only have 2 vegetarian pies but they are so worth that much extra that you pay for the amazing quality and taste of them!

They are so filling that I can't see me eating anything until at least lunchtime tomorrow!  It is the same with the Diet Chef soup - thick and yummy but expensive!

Maybe invest in a couple of pies to see for yourself?  :-)

Tuesday is...

... payday!  Yay!

Then on the 1st I start my NaNo novel again!

I'm going to be too busy writing to spend anything and I'm going to write a minimum of 2k words a day again... wish me luck!  :-)

Cooking meals

Steve enjoys cooking meals and so do I.

Steve doesn't like sitting out in the kitchen alone, to babysit the food until it's done.

I'm not stable enough on my feet to bend down to take food out of the oven, but I can prepare the food and put it into the oven.

So, we've come to an agreement.  I will prepare our meals and put them in the oven and Steve will take them out and serve them up.  That way, we are both cooking and doing things together for each other, playing on each others strengths and working around our less confident things.

The days that Steve doesn't want to do his part of the cooking, I'll grill burgers, bung a tray of chips into the oven and put some veggies in the steamer... I can do that alone and will mean that Steve doesn't feel pressured into cooking and stops us ordering a take away too!

I just need to remember to take my gorgeous opal rings off so that they don't explode in the heat!

Masterchef Australia

I'm currently watching Masterchef Australia and they are supposed to be doing Brit food so I'm watching with interest...

... the only truly British food that they are making is"bangers" aka sausages but they aren't producing the mash (potato's) to go with it!  Surely that's not truly British food if such a basic dish is served up so screwed up!  :(

One of the teams cut into their "cooked" meat and deep red blood came out!  Surely if it's going to be that rare then there's no reason that the poor animal should have died!  :(

One of the teams is really food challenged when it comes to Brit food... they are serving up jelly and cream for pud... it should be, if it was a true Brit pud, *ice* cream not squirty cream and it should be a bowl full of it, not a tiny bit of Earl Grey tea jelly in the very bottom of  a weird glass thing!

That'll be why...

The trousers I've been wearing are size 16, not the 14 I was thinking!

I haven't been size 16 for several months so it's no wonder they keep falling down!  lol

Recycling

Steve gets 2 boxes of Diet Coke for us every week and I've been binning the finished boxes up til now but apparently (according to this morning's bin man) they can be recycled so if it gets taken (it's on top of the recycling box atm 'cos there just isn't any more room in the box) this morning with the recycling then I'll know what to do with future boxes!

So cute!

Auntie Marie sent "Baby G's" first ultrasound picture to Uncle Steve who showed it to me... such a little sweetie already!

I'm going to ask Andrew and Jacki (Baby G's mum and dad) if I can create a page for Baby G and include the scans on it... record the journey sort of thing?

I hope they say yes!

I bet Steve gets the credit on Monday! :-(

I tidied up Steve's crap from in here yesterday but I bet Steve gets the credit for it and I get the blame for Steve's mess by the sofa!

Monday is M's last chance to not misplace the blame.  If she wrongly blames me then I'm gone!

That's impressive for me!

I've just taken 5 supplements in 7 mouthfuls of water!

I usually gulp 3 or 4 mouthfuls per tablet so it's impressive that it only took 7 mouthfuls today!

Yay me!

Something beginning with B

I had 2 things to remember to do today, but I've forgotten what the second one was other than it began with B!

The second thing was to remind Steve to let me know what he needed to know for his FTP programme so that he can start using his birthday pressie from me but I can't remember the first thing now!  :-(

I hope it's worth the money!

Just spent £59.99 as an upgrade to AVG free for 2 years - I hope it's worth it!

Now that it's been publically announced, I can spill the beans!

Andrew (my BIL) and Jacki are pregnant and expecting at the end of April 2015!

Yaay!

I'll be an Aunt in less than 6 months!  Totally awesome or what!

That little baby is going to be so spoilt by me and Steve!  lol

Steve's already threatening to feed the baby chocolate coated in sugar and using blue food colouring to make sure that the poor child is hyper when we hand him/her back to the parents!  lol

Steve's also said that we'll get something big for our niece/nephew when Andrew and Jacki have put a list together.

I think I'll have to keep Steve on a responsible lead!  lol

Panic over!

I changed the password on my laptop yesterday afternoon.

I tried to log in this morning and it wouldn’t accept it!

After almost half an hour, one of the many combinations finally worked!  Yay!

I’ve changed it to my previous password now!  lol

It's a cold but beautiful morning out there!

I've just taken Mitzi for her walk and it's a beautiful day out there!

There is a serene mist rising off the pavement and it's so calm and tranquil out there at 7.15am!

Wish I'd worn me coat though!  lol

I'm seriously considering...

... buying the 2 year subscription to AVG so that I can get all the security features on my little laptop.

I've got the 30 day trial right now and it's currently running a full system scan... it's already found 7 threats as well as the ones it got rid of this morning so if I still like it when the free trial comes to an end, I'll definitely be getting the subscription!

I love AVG Free!

I took off McAfee last night because it kept freezing on me.

I installed AVG Free instead.

It's picked up loads of things that McAfee missed - 3 things last night and 5 so far this morning!

WTG  AVG!

I'm wondering if it's the stuff that AVG is picking up that's stopping the Nectar toolbar from working?

Opals and body heat

Does anyone happen to know if opals react to body heat?

I know they can explode if they are in contact with a lot of heat, but my birthday opal ring arrived just plain white but the more I've been wearing it, the more slivers of colour have started appearing!

I love my 3 opal rings but the one I got for my birthday is huge and the colours are more obviously appearing the more I wear it!

If you know or have an opinion about it, please leave me a comment?

That was totally awesome use of my time!

I use Quidco to get cashback from Amazon and Simply Supplements mainly, but they've got an opinions/survey site as well.

I had 83p in there this morning.

I've got £2.33 in there now!

Just one simple, interesting survey gave me a £1.50 reward!

Much awesomeness!

Definitely recommend...

... the bath bombs from Bee Beautiful - they're gorgeous!

If you're a September or October baby or your children are born in September and October then I definitely recommend the ring too!  It's expensive but so worth it!

I've only used a grapefruit bath bomb so far, but if the other 49 are as well made as that then I'll definitely get them again!

The opal in the ring is huge - even rings that cost several hundred aren't this big!  The best £80 I've spent for years!

Apparently...

According to a standard email from Amazon, one of my Prime gifts will be delivered today...

The website has been saying that since Tuesday though!  lol

I got 50 bathbombs with the post this morning, so I'm going to try opening it and having an invigorating (is that the right word?) bath later on and let the brave soldier (Steve's word, not mine, to describe him answering the door to his carer while I was in the bathroom this morning) answer the door if someone knocks on it again!

Two more birthday gifts yesterday!

A card from my mum with money inside and an Amazon voucher from Marie, mum and dad in law came yesterday!

I've been spoiled rotten for my birthday this year!

There's no way I'm paying *that* much!!

I've just searched for a domain name and it's available... for £198 a year!

If it was 10% of that for a year then I'd happily pay it but not £200!

I would have willingly paid up to a quarter of what they are asking for it, or paid £200 for 5 years but there is no way I can spare £200 every year... sorry!

Ah, now that's more like it!  I added an S to the end of the £200 name and it's only £32... I'll be going with that I think!

I've just paid for 4 domains and the grand total with VAT was still less than just that one!  Not a small amount less either - £40 less!

It's amazing what a bit of lateral thinking can do!

It's only the *start* of Autumn but...

I woke up at 7am this morning, turned the bedside light off and it was pitch black.

I walked Mitzi at 7.15am and it was hissing it down with rain and still very dark outside.

It's now an hour after that and we've still got 2 lights on in here (the living room) and the curtains open!

Ho hum!

My birthday gifts care of Steve, C, Andrew and Jacki

I got £140 of Amazon vouchers for my birthday and I've spent them all now!  lol

I got:

3 crystals
3 pieces of jewellery
1 Pagan angel to go on my altar
50 bath bombs

I spent a grand total of £12 of my own money... our postie will hate me next week 'cos I'm expecting the self-inking stamps to come too!

Then there's Steve's birthday card coming too!  Oops!  lol

Blimey Charlie, Amazon, that's fast work!

I placed my order with Amazon at 9.26am today.

Part of it was dispatched at 10.31am!

Just an hour and 5 minutes is great going for a company between getting the order placed and having it dispatched!

My birthday gifts so far

I've just bought almost £63 worth of stuff at Amazon but only actually spent £12 of my own money!  I got 7 different things which will be with me at the end of the week.

My adopted dolphin, Spirit, wished me happy birthday and so has my mum-in-law and I'm going out for lunch with C today too!  Maybe H too?  I hope so!

Marie wished me happy birthday on Facebook along with several others... today is going well so far!

I is now into my 38th year!

Happy birthday to me
Squashed tomato's for tea
There's a nutter
In the gutter
And it is me!

Welcome to my 37th birthday celebration!

Into the final 9 hours 40 minutes of being 36!

In less than 10 hours I'll be 37 years old!

I just hope it doesn't rain so that I can put Patrick together and dismantle him... I have to sit on the kerb to put the batteries in and take them out and I don't want to get a wet bum on my birthday!

Bottombottom has qualified 3rd in the Japanese Grand Prix so I hope he finishes the race on the podium tomorrow!

Just bought 8 rubber stamps on eBay

Just bought 8 self-inking stamps on eBay for £30 and some pennies as an investment for any marketing for my books or babysitting or whatever I do as a hobby for the kids to feel better about what they are learning and hopefully encouragement to keep trying!

One of the stamps is a dog's paw with the personalization on it of "Mitzi" so that she can sign cards and gifts too - she's our little girl so I want to include her on family and friend's gifts!

Amazon - do they have sales closer to Christmas?

The online shop, Amazon, do they have sales closer to Christmas or is that when they increase their prices please?

I want to get my best male friend a joint birthday and Christmas gift but I can't remember if Amazon's prices are higher, the same, or lower in the approach to Christmas is all!

That's oneheckuva...

... slice of cake!

Easily a third of the whole cake got delivered in a deceptively small box!

It's currently sitting in the fridge waiting for tomorrow so that I've got room in me belly for it!

Must be getting towards Winter because...

I reckon it must be getting towards Winter because the main light in here was on for most of the day yesterday and it's on again now, probably for the rest of the day, even with the curtains open!

The stairs were also pitch black by 5pm yesterday too!

Steve also said that he was "a bit chilly" this morning and he's asleep under a duvet on the sofa now... Steve's never cold!

Ho hum!

Well, it's 2 days late but I've finally done it all!

I was supposed to do 5 invites, send out an assignment and set up a forum on my site on Monday.
I didn't do any of it because I was too low to do it.

I could do it on Tuesday instead.  It would only be a day late then!
Nope... didn't manage to do any of it then either!

I sent out a prayer first thing this morning and, again, it was answered!
I asked that I did the 5 invites and put the forum on my site before bed time.
It's now 5.15pm and I've just got to send out the assignment for today, et voila!

My Higher Powers are fantastic!

Pinch and punch and all that

I've only just realised it's the 1st of October today!