Steve's last day at his job and...

...it's taken until 4.15pm for anyone to contact him!

Too little, too late.

He's got 45 minutes then that's the end of his job so if they want him to do something now then tough luck!

This is me... don't laugh too hard!

Mitzi's new muzzle was dispatched this morning

It's coming by second class Royal Mail so hopefully it'll be here on Saturday so that we can get her used to it before she meets our nephew for the first time.

Going by how she was with the toddler a little while ago, I've got no reason to think she'll be anything but great with H, but we don't want to risk it just in case!

Tomorrow I'm going to try...

...doing a vlog entry instead of my usual text entries.

Got no idea if it will work or not, but I want to at least give it a try!  I like being able to put a voice and face to a name, so I'm going to give that a try tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

If you've got any tips for me can you leave me a comment in reply to this post please?

Thank you!

Just got back and Vision Express...

...are definitely the most thorough optitian I've ever been to!

They test the pressure in your eye, take photo's of the back of your eye and test your periferal vision too!

Not only that, but because I get one particular benefit, the eye tests are free for me!

If you are in the UK and want to get your sight tested while on benefits, I definitely recommend Vision Express!

Going to get my eyes tested again today

I just hope that I don't shoot back when they do the pressure test after I've had the test is all!  lol

That was a wasted journey then!

Apparently my previous laptop didn't have a Windows key so he couldn't do anything with it.

So, I've got to unscrew the bottom, take the hard drive out and run a magnet over it.  That saves me £123 but I've still got no idea how to dispose of it when I've done that!

I might just put it on Freegle or ebay or whatever for spares or repair.  *sigh*

Hopefully...

I've just bought meself a mini dictaphone that I'm hoping will fit into the small bag attached to the quadcane so that I've always got something handy whenever I get an idea for a book or whatever!

It'll be here tomorrow so I just hope it fits now!  lol

A diet suitable for everyone... It's worked for me!

I came out of hospital in 2003 a size 28.

As of this morning I'm now half that size.

If you've got weight to loose and you're prepared for a long journey to weight loss and keeping it off, try this:

There's no restrictions about what you eat or when you eat it and the only exercise is walking about 60 yards a day more than you do right now.

The tricks to this diet is to drink a glass of water whenever you feel hungry in case your brain is confusing thirst with hunger.

The second trick is to only eat until you feel full then stop 'cos it takes about 15 minutes for your brain to realise it's full and send out the signal to stop eating.

Feel free to have a couple of bloated sessions a year if you want to... mine is at Christmas with the in-laws!

That's all there is to it... no sins, no forbidden food and very little exercise.

Don't weigh yourself as you do it, go by clothes sizes alone and don't try to rush it because this is a life-long journey.

If you need a reason to walk those extra yards, volunteer to walk a small dog for someone every day.

That really is all there is to it.  No secrets, no plans, no shame, no weigh-ins... I don't even call it a diet and never have!  Just be prepared for the weight to take years to come off instead of a few months is all.

To make up for today, tomorrow will have to be...

...another huge writing day with at least 4 chapters written again!

Mitzi's walk this morning

We usually go up and down the street 3 times every morning but she wanted to come home after twice this morning!

I hope she's OK!

That's the 4th chapter today done and dusted.

Almost a third of the way through the manuscript now!

Just tidied up the main bedroom a bit and...

...there's no room in either of our wheelie bins to fit anything else in them so part 2 of the clear-out will have to be after the bins have been emptied in 8 days time.

I've made a start though!

The wrong team won the men's boat race :-(

Knew it was too good to be true for both genders to win today  :-(

Well done to the women, maybe next year for the men.

That's 3 chapters written today, so I'm going to...

...watch the men's boat race without feeling guilty now!

The right team won the women's boat race again!

I keep wishing I'd put money on it!  lol

Just hope the men keep up the winning streak now!

Apparently there was a royal visitor to Steve's steam railway yesterday!

Steve's just said that there was a commotion at the railway yesterday with trying to find an extra 2 lamps to go on the train which only happens when there is a member of the royal family on board!  If it's the reigning monarch then they can put little crowns over the name plates and the headlamps get crowns too!

They didn't know which royal it was but it was definitely someone in the royal family!

That's 2 chapters written already and it's only lunchtime!

Just finished writing chapter 25 which means I've written 2 chapters already this morning and I'm well on track to write 4 chapters before I head to bed tonight!

Yay!

Just finished writing another chapter...

...and I've had enough for today.

Going to find out what we're having for tea then going to bed.

One for M from Facebook again

Something I realised in bed last night

If I hadn't miscarried my twins and they followed in my footsteps, I would have been a grandma this year at only 38!  If my grandchildren had continued to follow, I'd have been a great grandma at 76!

Scary stuff!

Busy start to next week!

Monday - Having lunch with Steve's family

Tuesday - My previous laptop is getting taken in to be fixed

Wednesday - Getting my eyes tested

Busy, busy, busy! 

The pup flooded the street this morning!

Just got back from taking the pup on her morning walkies and the amount of wee she produced shouldn't have surprised me, but she almost flooded the street!

Gotta remember to send off the first 50 pages of Speckles to Chicken House now!

Less than 2 hours!

The hubby printed out a letter this morning but the black ink had run out, so I ordered another cartridge at 10.52am and it was dispatched at 11.43am!

I just hope I've ordered the right one!  lol

Just in case...

Disrespect

Another one for M

One for M from Facebook

This is so me!

Sight test next Wednesday at 1.20pm

Gotta remember to have a bath on Tuesday in preparation for my FIL to pick me up on Wednesday at 12.30pm so that we can go down by the docks and park up somewhere or other.

Wish me luck!

This is so me!

Good job I got this laptop when I did, because...

...I wiped my hard drive in the previous laptop and got a blue screen of death on it!  Whenever I turn it on I'm told that the hard drive has died!

Thank you to my Higher Powers who got me to buy this laptop when they did!

Depression, via Facebook

If I forget about the reason I'm phoning my FIL...

...it's to see if he fancies driving me into town to have my eyes tested again in exchange for my previous laptop!

Just cleared up the rubbish, and...

...the last black bin bag is only half full!

I'm in a bit of a clearing up mood atm!

Mitzi's walk this morning

Just got back from taking the pup on her walk and she made 2 new friends this morning!

The man next door came out twice and his wife once.  They both talked to Mitzi and her little tail was wagging into a blur!

Such a friendly little girl!

Perfect relationship

If a girl is silent...

Mitzi was a good girl on her walk this morning

We went back to the usual 3 times up and down the road again this morning and she was happy to come home but she wanted to watch the ambulance go through first!  It was almost like she wanted to protect whoever was in it in her own little way!

Mitzi only wanted to do two thirds of her walk this morning :-(

I usually take the pup up and down the street 3 times every morning, but she refused to move past the front door after the first two times today for some reason!

I hope she's OK!

If I whine about...

... the Citalopram not working in future, can someone remind me to take my vitamin B12 again please?

Yesterday I could have sworn the AD had stopped working, but I've just taken the multvitamin and the B12 and I'm fine again now, so it's the vitamins that I needed to take, not more AD!

I hope any fellow Pagans out there...

...have a blessed Ostara today!

My bath pillow has just arrived, so...

I can now have a bath in comfort again.  Yay!

I've just got to stop spending more than a tenner a month now... gotta be strick with myself!

Save your money!

Just left a 1 star review of a teeth whitening thing.

It kept sliding off my teeth so it couldn't even start to work!

*sigh*

They are calling on Tuesday because...

They need to talk to Steve to get an idea of household income so hopefully we will both be awake when they call!  lol

Bet nothing will come of it, but...

...I've just filled in a form for a government backed debt reduction thing.  I'm hoping they'll be able to write off some of my credit card debts but if they can't, it's no great shakes!

Fostering a troubled child

Just seen this and wanted to share it with you!

Get the tissues ready!

I've just discovered something in Word thanks to SCBWI!

Someone on the SCBWI Facebook page said that Word could read documents out loud.

Great stuff!

Steve's just helped me to find out how to do it and add it to the quick launch bar thing.

Neither of us knew it was even possible until I read the Facebook message!

Just written another chapter of

Just written another 760 words to my Toni trilogy and I'm back into my creative mind space again so hopefully I'll be able to do a chapter every day now until I finish it... wish me luck!

My little nephew is now...

...crawling and his dad, Andrew, sent out a video to Uncle Steve and it's just so amazing!  I'm so proud of little H... he was standing up and holding on to something a week or so back so it won't be long now before he walks and he's not a year old until the middle of next month!

Being original for a change

Got dandelion & burdock and cream soda to drink this week for a bit of a change!

Steve's ordering in a curry for his tea and I'm having chips then I'll spend all day tomorrow trying to write a bit more of my Toni trilogy!  lol

Just finished the Skype call

Just spoken to the lady on Skype and she's going to let me know the result soon 'cos she's got other authors to talk to about it but it went better than I was expecting!

Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me!

Wish me luck!

I've got a Skype call in less than half an hour about a voluntary writing position!


I'm getting so nervous!  lol

Crufts last night

A little Westie won best in show at Crufts last night.

Both me and Steve cheered and threw our arms up in the air when the Westie won.

Makes me proud to be a Westie mum!

Another one from Facebook

Replacement

I'm tired

Apparently Steve's noticably loosing weight!

Steve's brother, Andrew, came over yesterday and apparently he asked Steve if he'd lost weight!

His t-shirts aren't as tight over his stomach as they used to be and his bat wings have shrunk too.  Apparently the other day he was scratching an itch on the back of his shoulder and he felt bones there too!

All 3 of us in our ickle 'ouse are loosing weight which can only be a good thing because we all need to.

WTG us!

Yumsk!

Just had me scrambled eggs and they were yumsk!  Steve's added grated cheese, to the shopping order as well as a dozen eggs and we're going to try having cooked lunches and pick at bits and bobs in the evening 'cos Steve said he feels more like cooking at lunchtimes instead of in the evening so we'll give that a go next week and see what happens!

Apparently we'll be having pasta and sauce for lunch tomorrow... he's been promising me that all week!  lol

We'll both be on Skype calls tomorrow morning so I'm hoping the pasta 'n' sauce will be our reward when we've both finished the calls!

I don't suppose anyone has any recipes for things that can be done in a frying pan other than a mixed grill and scrambled eggs have they?  The healthier the better and it's a huge frying pan so an omlette would look like a single sheet of paper on the bottom of it and we've got tonnes of dry pasta to use too so if you've got any recipes, can you leave them in the comments bit for me please?

Thank you!

Lunch today will be...

...a bowl of scrambled eggs!  Yummy!

Mitzi made a doggie friend on her walk this morning!

Mitzi made two new doggy friends on her walk this morning! She started pulling on her harness and I thought it was just the woman that the pup wanted to see, but a dog appeared before her on a long lead in front of the woman and came over to see Mitzi. She was in heaven bless her!

Mitzi and the first dog sniffed each other's noses while the woman carried on walking and a Yorkshire Terrier eventually appeared and the three of them just carried on walking up the road and Mitzi started barking because she wanted to play with the dogs!

Eventually Mitzi came home and told Steve about it, bless her tiny little heart!

The positives and negatives of my name

My 3 sides

Yep, this is pretty much me!

Oops and d'oh!

Steve bought a new frying pan at the end of the week and it was delivered yesterday... it's huge!  Too big for just one ring on our cooker and too small for 2 rings!  Oops!

Andrew is going to come over and watch the rugby.  Steve said it was on at lunchtime so was expecting Andrew by 11am if not before.  Steve's just looked at the times on the digibox and it's not on until gone 3pm!  D'oh!

So I'm stuck up here until this evening now when I could have stayed downstairs for several hours instead of rushing to bring my laptop and phone up here to the bedroom first thing!

*sigh*

My headphones and mic have suddenly started working, so...

...I can now have Skype calls and video's with people whenever I want!  Yay!

If you could keep me in your thoughts next week, I'm hoping I'll be accepted for a voluntary writing opportunity which will be an amazing start to my year of writing!

Wish me luck!

Mitzi was a naughty girl on her walk this morning!

I put her harness on and she got excited but when we got outside she refused to move first of all, when she eventually moved she only got up the street a little way then stopped again and refused to move.

When we eventually got down the other end of the street she put her handbrake on again.

We then went up the street again but she refused to go past the front door the second time so we came into the house and she refused to let us take her harness off.

I've already given up for the day and I've only been awake for an hour!

Mitzi's Dogs Trust harness has just arrived

The harness has just been posted through the door and she's now wearing it and she's fast asleep in her bed now, bless her!

Just need a Dogs Trust lead and we've gone full circle.  She's doing well with her Friendly dog lead though, bless her little heart and she's munching on a Dentastix now for being such an amazing girl!

Just had BC on the phone, and...

...I owe them just over £4,500 which will be paid off over 5 years at £75 a month.

BC are the credit card I owe most on and I'm paying them by direct debit, but I'm saving up to pay off the full amount by the end of the year if I can keep my spending sensible!

Tomorrow

I'm expecting 2 deliveries tomorrow (a Dogs Trust harness for Mitzi and an eye mask from Amazon that I need to review) then Steve's bought himself a frying pan which will be delivered on Friday and A is coming over to watch the rugby on Saturday!

Then I'm hoping to meet up with C and H on Sunday then it's pay day on Monday and bill day on Tuesday!

At least it's spread out, not all at once like today was going to be!

Not so busy after all

We're not getting our hair cut after all today because the lady who does it can't make it today.  I've still got to sign for the bag and prescription and add the ladies to SUGAR, but it's two less things to worry about doing today.

Steve also fell off the sofa at 4.45am and yelled for me to come down and help him so I'm wiped out after that too!

Mitzi knows how to spell too, she gets excited when we say walkies so we've been spelling it out but she recognised the spelling just now, bless her little tiny heart!

Busy day tomorrow!

The morning is the same, wake up, walk and feed the pup, watch The Bill and answer the door to Steve's carer.

It's just after that, that changes.

We're having our hair cut tomorrow so I've got to wash my hair, add new members to SUGAR, sign for my prescription, sign for a delivery for a new bag 'cos mine has broken for some reason and wobble over to an ATM to get some money for Steve before his dad takes us to get our hair cut so that he can pay the lady who cuts our hair for us.

Busy, busy, busy!

My money again

Assuming I keep putting £300 aside every month, I'll be able to pay off over a third of BC by July then save up for birthday and Yule gifts as well as paying off another £1,000 by October which will mean that I've only got another £1,000 to pay off on BC before it's totally cleared at the start of 2017.

Paying off BC will free up another £75 a month which I'll increase CO and SB to £75 a month each and still save up £300 every month so that I can pay them both off by the end of 2017 which will start off 2018 totally debt free and £450 spare every month which I'll save up for paying off a bit more of the mortgage each month or paying for a weeks food every month or something like that.

It means that in less than 2 years I won't need to worry about bills any more because I'll have paid them all off!

Just need to remember that now!  lol

You and me head on for the next 2 years, spending addiction, and you are definitely going to loose this time!

Apparently....

...the poor pup was hungry last night so she went to her bowl and it was empty so she had a big drink instead.  When I fed her this morning, she stuck her nose right into her bowl and started eating.

It was gone in less than 5 minutes!  lol

Bless her tiny little heart!

This morning's walk with Mitzi

I was happy with our usual three times up and down the street but Mitzi wasn't, so we doubled her walk this morning... she was ready to come home after we'd been up and down the street six times and she was happy to come in the door then!  lol

Mitzi's just had a delivery...

... and it's her harness part 3 so I'm just waiting for her Dogs Trust harness now then that really is it as far as buying things goes!  lol

This is so me!

Does anyone know, please...

... anything about clicker training dogs?

I'd love to train Mitzi using a clicker, but I know precisely nothing about how to use it!

According to the Dogs Trust site, you use the clicker as a sort of signal that the dog has done what you've asked and they get a reward after you've clicked the button when they do it.

Doesn't the dog get a bit reliant on the clicker thing though?  Could I use a toy instead of food or use her breakfast kibbles to reward her or something like that?

The pup is a bit overweight so don't want to use much food in her training so that she keeps loosing the weight but at the same time, I want to reward her when she does well too!  Could I maybe insert the clicker training in between the walking and feeding her so that she still gets the same amount of food but she has to work for it maybe?


I'm interested to know what you all think to this!

Just bought Mitzi...

...a Dogs Trust harness that is made for Westies so I know it's the right size for her and not only is it a walking harness, it's a car harness too which is what I've been searching for and spent fifty quid on 3 harnesses that either didn't fit her (the first one), was for use in the car only (the second one) and the third prolly won't be useable for walking either knowing my luck, but even if the third one is suitable for walking as well as in cars, it'll be a spare is all!

Either that or I'll put it on Freegle again!

Either way, Mitzi will have at least 1 harness next week!

Mother's Day in England

Just spoken to me mum again...

...to wish her happy mother's day and at the end of May she'll be stuck in the village with no transport to anywhere.

She's not exactly young any more and she can't drive so she's reliant on my brother and a neighbour to take her wherever she needs to go.

She's also not in the best of health so she's reliant on drivers to take her to wherever she needs to go too.

Our PM promised at the last election that he wouldn't cut rural bus routes, but that's exactly what he's doing!

I'm seriously considering writing to the c**t and really letting rip!

Wobbled a bit but didn't fall over

The pup was a good girl on her walk and I didn't fall over... yay!

Her harness should hopefully arrive tomorrow too... third time lucky with that!   lol

I need to clear up her poo in the back yard though otherwise M will have another go at me for not doing it again  :-/

I'm doing more than Steve though but it's me that she has a go at every week, not him!  :-o

A+

Even though I've been out of education for two decades and I've got brain damage, I still made it into the top 3% according to this test!

Apparently I'm a genius!  lol

Didn't wobble or fall over today

Just got back from walking the pup and I didn't even wobble let alone fall over this morning!  Yay!

This is so me!

Found the lid at last, and...

We've got 2 recycling boxes that are collected every Monday and one of the lids has been missing the last couple of weeks.

I've just found it in the kitchen!  lol

The "and..." bit in the title is that I've just given Mitzi double the amount of coconut oil than I usually give her by mistake and she seemed to be in heaven!  lol

1,600 blog posts! Yay!

This is my 1,600th blog post!  yay!

Wobbled a bit but didn't fall over

Just got back from taking the pup for her walk and I wobbled but didn't fall over!

Yay!

Third time lucky?

Mitzi's first harness was way too big.
Mitzi's second harness is only for use in cars.
Just had to buy again in the hope it'll be third time lucky.

Amazon need to re-word their page to say that it's only for use in cars so that other customers don't make the same mistakes I did!

*sigh*

Didn't fall over on Mitzi's walk today, but...

...she poo'd so I went to pick it up like a responsible dog owner and almost fell over when I crouched down to put the nappy sack over the end of the scoop to put her poo in the sack which would have been embarrasing!  lol

Almost fell over 3 times on...

... Mitzi's walk this morning and I'm now physically shaking and I've lost all confidence in my walking ability  :-(

Getting paid 4 times in March, so...

... I'll be able to comfortably put £100 into each of my savings accounts and still be able to comfortably pay all my direct debits in March and be able to put another £300 aside every month after that!

I just need to stop spending!  lol