Hola!

Anyone out there speak Spanish? I've been practising today and can say a few sentences :o)
This has helped, I've found a few people who are willing to have a chat and help me with my Spanish, while I help them with their English.
So, for my own benefit, as practice...
ahem...
Buenos noches :o)
Me llamo Tina y tengo 36 anos...oh dear, don't suppose I can do that little squiggly thing over the letter 'n' on here!
Soy de sur de Inglaterra.
Tengo dos hijos, Sam tiene 13 y Katie tiene 9.
Yo visitare Malaga en Abril.
That has taken me a good few hours to learn, LOL! I suppose I better get on with my assignment now!
Hasta luego!

Four things...

this looks fun (pinched from Kat and Nog's Blogs)

Four jobs you've had in your life
Saturday jobs - Woolworths (very briefly) then library assistant
assistant manager in a bank (boooring!)
nursery assistant
teaching assistant

Four movies you could watch over and over
Saving Private Ryan
Ice Age
Great Escape
anything starring Pierce Brosnan

Four places you've lived
Tilbury, Essex (yes, I was an Essex girl!)
Oostaker, Belgium
Utica, Michigan
Walderslade (Kent)

Four places you've been on holiday
Florida
Greece
Canary Islands
Spain

Four websites you visit daily
ebay
blogspot
Mount St Helens webcam
BBC

Four TV shows you love to watch
Home Improvement
What not to wear
Place in Spain
How Clean is your house
don't watch TV much, but when I do I usually go for one of these.

Four of your favourite foods
Dairy Milk chocolate
mint choc chip icecream
McDonalds chips
yoghurt

Four places you'd rather be
by a private pool in Spain
The Rockies
under my duvet
Any of the Moors in England

Four Albums you can't live without
Chicago 17
David Gray White Ladder
Bryan Adams Waking up the neighbours
Enrique

New toy!

Feeling slightly old today...it's my daughter's birthday and she's 9! Was it really that long ago that she was toddling around with teeny bunches in her hair,in her pretty dresses and white shoes? There's one other thing about Katie's birthday...its arrival means mine is only 8 days away, which means I'll be yet another year closer to 40 (yipes!).
I've packed her off to school (so cruel, her brother has a Baker day and is home with me and hub!!) with a promise that no one will play with her new toys in her absence...apart from me of courwse, I'm allowed to 'test' them...which is what I have just been doing.....we bought Katie a keyboard as she seems to have a flair for singing and rhythm, and I've tried and tried to play this morning, but am amazed at how much I have forgotten (I used to play piano in my teens). It's a super keyboard though, I doubt we'll ever discover how to take advantage of all its functions.
So not only do I now want to learn Spanish but I also want to re-teach myself how to play the keyboard with both hands! The acrylic nails will have to go though, very difficult to hit the right key (much like the mistakes I type right now) ... bitten nails work so much better as far as typing and hitting the right keys go!
Suddenly my OU courses don't hold the same appeal....might go have another tinker with the keyboard rather than start the first TMA of the year!

Ebay

Got any Xmas money left? I'm having a clearout and listing a load of stuff on ebay

3lbs down :o)

Rest

Went to the doctors today, he's signed me off work for two weeks. He was a locum, and much more approachable than the usual doctor. I bent his ear a bit, telling how I hadn't felt right since November, caught the flu, reacted badly to those flu capsules, about what seem to be panic attacks (not nice), and the complete and utter exhaustion that sends me for a lie down at the most ridiculous times (and worries my 8 year old, which makes one feel even worse!).
I was pleased he put it down to flu and nothing more sinister, but two weeks off work! (I won't be flavour of the month that's for sure!). He reckons flu can linger for 13 weeks, god I hope not, I don't have time for that!
So here's me, with a ton of time on my hands and strict orders to rest and eat well (the second I am doing already).
Does this mean I can't study? No way, I could use this time to get ahead....if only I had the energy. And I suppose my treadmill will just have to continue gathering dust :o(
All that money I spent on vitamins in Holland and Barrett....they sure take their time to make a difference!
Ah well, best go phone work now...

whoops!

Will someone pleeease come and take away a big box of Cadbury's Heroes before I eat the lot?! Had been positively angelic all day until it came to cooking dinner, when I managed to scoff 8 of them! Still, no weigh-in til Friday....perhaps an hour on the treadmill might sort it ...oh dear....can't find my trainers....what a shame.....

Another countdown...

It'd be easy to overdo it with these ticker thingies, but this is essential as a kick up the backside as far as my weightloss is concerned.....

Nearly another year older...

Two pounds down....

.....loads to go! I'm referring to my weight loss, in this, the first week of my healthy eating plan (thanks to Jorge Cruise's 8 Minutes in the Morning). He suggests that following his eating plan and exercising different muscle groups for just 8 mins. every morning will lose you 2 pounds a week. It's worked so far, and I didn't do the exercise as I'm still a 'poorly poppet' (as my mum would say) from the flu.
To follow this eating plan was one of my New Year's resolutions. I've talked myself into this one...it's not a diet, it's a healthy eating plan..for life...I will not feel deprived of a Jaffa cake or a few Cadbury's Heroes therefore I will succeed! Watch this space to see if I manage another week of it!
The reall challenge will be in what I take to work to eat and what I eat the minute I get home when I most crave some 'junk'. This week I've had alot of seeds and nuts, but I can't take nuts to work as there is a little boy who could have an anaphylactic shock if he comes within contact of anyone/thing that has been near a nut (yeah, I some might say I myself am a bit of a nut, I know!). I'll have to save the nuts for the evening and take fruit instead, not as filling but it'll have to do.
Thanks to Kat for this groovy link...

What we did this Christmas...

Drank...

....and drank....

until some were fit to burst

...and others drank so much over the cooking, that they nearly fell off their chair!

Chatted...

and dressed up...

...unwrapped allsorts of lovely gifts

and entertained,

found new ways of playing old games,

bounced...

and bounced some more...

..and partied

...and posed (with looks like these who wouldn't!)

...ventured outside

and spoke Furbish!

And last but not least, seasonal greetings to family in the Caribbean...hi mum, hi dad, Happy Christmas! xx

Snow, Beechams and police!

Did Santa bring you what you wanted? Hope so :o) Take a look at the view from my conservatory this morning...Oops, forgot to rotate, you'll just have to turn your head, or tip your monitor on its side, or something ;o)



My children wanted, amongst other pricey things, snow, and we got it, a few days late, but it's here! There's enough of it for me not to even think about venturing out to the sales in the car, and enough for me to wonder if the dustmen will make it up our windy hills to collect my 10+ sacks of rubbish. Darn, it's me that's got to put them out...hub has just returned from nightshift and was so tired he didn't think to put them out before he fell into bed.

I'm nursing a stinking cold (when will those 7 assorted vitamins from Holland and Barrett kick in?!), have had it since Xmas Eve. That's an evening I won't forget. I'd been taking Beechams Flu Plus through the day, hadn't exceeded the recommended amount, and after our guests had gone and the kids were tucked up in bed awaiting Santa I felt terrible. I thought maybe the prawns I'd eaten were playing havoc in my tum, so I retired to bed with the bucket, leaving poor hub to wait up until kids were definitely asleep to do the stuff that a parent has to do on Xmas Eve, no matter how tired.
An hour later I couldn't sleep it off , hadn't been sick, my hands had pins and needles, and my heart was pounding harder and faster than I could ever imagine it could. I've experienced panic attacks but this was ten times worse!
It wore off after an hour, but I had a rough night and managed to worry husband enough so that he had a rough night too! It was a job getting up with the kids at 6.30am!

During a quiet moment on Xmas Day I armed myself with the leaflet from the Beechams packet, having sussed that it can't have been the prawns, and did a websearch on its ingredients. Sure enough, one of them can cause palpitations and nausea, especially if you suffer from high blood pressure (which I did when I was on the pill and during pregnancy, it also runs in the family so I suspect maybe it still is a bit on the high side).

So here sit I, without medicine, trying to fight it off 'naturally' Thought I might get a good night's sleep last night, but no, following raised voices at 1.40am, a police van arrived noisily outside (snow meant I heard every officer's footstep and the turn of the van wheels) at 2.30am and carted off someone from down the street!

I'm hoping there's a suitably dull film on this afternoon and that the kids will remain entertained by their new pressies so that I can drift off on the sofa.

Time to stop, kids are up and preparing to go out (sans brekkie) in the snow already...
a-ha.....maybe they can lug the rubbish sacks to the road!!

Night Shift

yippeee, hub has heard that he has not only got a promotion to middle management, but that his new job will involve maybe only the odd night shift. He's put up with working 2 weeks out of 3 on night shifts since before our son Sam was born, and Sam is 12 now, he'd had enough of it years ago and has progessively found it more and more difficult to sleep when he needs to, so you can imagine how pleased we are. I'm expecting to see a happier husband when he starts his day work. Not sure how I'll study with the TV on every evening though, I'm used to being on my own and doing my own thing.

Rate your teacher

This is an interesting site. You can rate your teacher! Funny how the teacher I found least approachable 18 years ago still doesn't rate very well today!
No rating for any teachers at the school I work in...are we that dull?!

Another quiz, can you tell I am bored?!
1.What are you doing for Christmas?
entertaining in-laws

2.What do you WISH you were doing for Christmas?
lying by a pool or deep blue sea, somewhere warm, where the kids and hub would be happy playing while I read a good book with copious Malibu and pineapple

3.What should you be doing while you’re answering these questions?
clearing away dinner

4.Quote something ridiculous that your boss has said this week.
Have you changed your mind about wanting to cut down your hours Tina?

5.Do you like Jimmy Carr? Explain your answer fully…
Who's he?!

6.What’s the worst job you’ve ever done?
worked in Woolworths as a 'Saturday girl'

7.Sofa, settee. or couch?
Sofa

8.“9 to 5” by Dolly Parton or “9 to 5” by Sheena Easton?
Like both

9.If you could have a miniature talking anyone to keep on your mantelpiece
/ in your pocket, who would it be?
Joe Pasquale, he makes me laugh.

10.What is the most delicious thing in the butchers?
minted lamb chops

11.Would you rather run a mile, jump a stile or eat a country pancake?
run a mile (thinks weight-loss!)

12.What was your most embarrassing exam result?
Maths GCSE - grade C (I got an A in the mock and didn't bother to revise for the real thing!)

13.What is the lowest price for which you would sleep with Anne
Widdicombe/John McCrirrick?
no lowest prcie, just wouldn't do it!

14.Which part of your body do you like best?
eyes when made up, otherwise pierced navel

15.And least?
thighs

16.Describe the contents of your fridge right now.
milk, vegetables, salad stuff, cous cous, pineapple juice, yoghurts, bacon and cheese

17.How old is your oldest item of underwear?
15 years old! Wedding day undies, they don't fit now but I've still got them.

18.What’s the most embarrassing song that you LOVE?
there's probably loads, but the one that comes to mind is Barry Manilow's Mandy

19.Rate your dancing from 1 to 10 (1 being lowest, 10 being highest)
nothing special....5?

20.What time did you (will you) get home from your works christmas night out
you dirty stopout?
12.45am