No Man's Land

It's now that very odd time between Christmas & New Year - the time when you have put all your pressies away (I did well - alongside the new utility I got a stunning framed canvas of the KC, a serious amount of Clarins and a fabulous lounge about silk dressing gown) and you have taken all the rubbish out and if you go into work (or in my case volunteer to be available for work) it's fabulous as you can get stuff done but also the time when nothing happens ... so whilst I have volunteered to be available, I have about 1/2 a day's worth of work to do today so to keep myself busy before a conference call this PM I am now alternately knee deep in all the washing I couldn't get done over the past 5 days, staring into the fridge wondering what on earth I can do for FauxSurreyHubby with all the left over turkey & ham & doing all the pre new year esoteric stuff like writing my letter from the future  (oh - I can vouch this one works!!) whilst also making resolutions like I really will lose weight this coming year and looking up cross trainers on line.

I also need to look up cat drinking fountains online. The KC has been poorly sick over Christmas - cystitis again - and the effects of the antibiotics are making her even more sick (we have had litter tray issues...!) so am looking after her as much as you can look after a cat. She is fast asleep on plumped up pillows in the lounge right now & I have put bowls of water everywhere for her, in a vain attempt to get her to drink more.

However on Friday something will happen - I will accompany FauxSurreyHubby into his big bad workplace & shop a bit as the FSH workplace has some very good shops indeed & then lunch somewhere fabulous, and we will then come home after lunch & hunker down & the next day lock the doors & windows & light a fire & chill the Krug & spend a glorious NYE a Deux. Just the 2 of us. Bliss.

Wishing you all health & happiness in 2012

Merry Christmas!

And a happy, healthy & peaceful 2012; may it be the year dreams come true. 2012 also happens to be my Chinese year - the year of the Dragon! The last time it was my year was 2000; and that was in hindsight a very good year!

D I Yes!!

Finally! It must be Christmas - I have just completed a DIY task I didn't fail miserably at! OK, a 5 year old could do it well given proper instruction but that's not the point. Feeling brave I took a lint free cloth (as intsructed) and I shook the tin well (also as instructed). I then poured a little clear Danish oil onto my cloth & wiped it onto my new utility worktop, working with the grain. And I didn't stuff up, I didn't make a mess, I didn't even drip. And it actually looks lovely! Smells a bit but I have achieved!! Oh yes, confidence growing; next I will decorate the downstairs loo. Well, maybe ... !

I'm just wild about Harry

... as is the rest of the country! Go Harry! What a final. In case you don't know I'm talking about Strictly Come Dancing. I know it is said every year but this really was the best final ever. Although Jason Donovan's showdance was mesemrising and utterly spectacular (and deserved 40/40), the worthy winner was indeed Prince Harry Judd, dancefloor Royalty. I now feel slightly sheepish that I had described him as a spotty faced pizza delivery boy back in September (well how am I supposed to know who McFly's drummer was??)

So the Strictly final was completely brilliant. Kristina was having a blast choreographing amazing routines for the truly brilliant Jason, Chelseeeeee was as cute as a Smurf yet gobsmackingly talented & Harry flexed his pecs & pointed his feet & swayed his hips & at one point FauxSurreyHubby was talking & I went temporarily deaf as Harry was virtually shirtless ..... am I bad wife?!

Anyway, Saturdays will now be lacking in glamour & glitz & spray tan. A good job then that this time next week it's Christmas!! And champagne will flow & lights will twinkle & carols will carol. Hurrah!

Places I've never been

Something joyful today. I got this from a wonderful, beautiful, talented, eccentric friend in WA and had to share! It made me laugh out loud – thanks Evi!

“I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to work.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore.

I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there too often.

I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm.

Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older.

One of my favourite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get!

I have not yet been in Continent. It's apparently an age thing”

Then Ev pointed out that LOVE was missing so I took the liberty ... 

 

"The best place I have been is in Love. It's a strange place, calm & beautiful & terrifying at the same time. You can go there alone or with someone but you need sturdy boots and nerves of steel as its true path never runs smoothly"

Trust in me ...?

Trust. Such a small word; but such a hard thing to earn & so easily lost . We know we can't trust Shere Khan; we thought we could trust my 15 year old step daughter. However our trust was badly misplaced. She has lied to us - brazen full on lied to a direct question. A lie that now has far reaching & expensive consequences.

She has recently been working very hard at both school & her part time job. She has been getting A's for her GCSE's and has been generally a delight. So when she asked if she could go to a boy neighbours' "gathering" on Saturday night we said yes, sure. The house is literally across the road from us. But of course we wanted to be responsible so we asked her - directly - his parents do know about this don't they? Yes she said, he says they do. Will there be alcohol? Oh no she said. And we had no reason to doubt her word. I negotiated hard with FauxSurreyHusband to get her a late pass – home by 11pm was agreed. And off she went. Only to bring herself home before 10 claiming the party was “really boring, full of geeks” and promptly run upstairs. Odd I thought but knowing that so many are labelled geek by her friends thought no more of it.

However last night a letter came through the door. From the boy in questions' parents. They had absolutely NOT known about the party - he had NOT been given permission. And they had returned to the thing we all read about in the papers and tut & wonder how it happens. A trashed house. The damage runs into £1000's from what we can gather. The invite had gone out on Facebook, so many people just turned up uninvited. But who are these people who go to a house party and then trash the place? And I don't use the word trash out of context.

The parents are conservatively estimating the cost of the damage at around £10k and are considering billing all those who attended and you know what, I think they should. The kids who attended stole & drank ALL the alcohol in the house, rugs & carpets were destroyed by mud & god knows what; all beds had been “slept” in (including a 10 year old boys bed & and I use that term in the ‘sleeping with’ context. Eeeew), their snooker table was damaged beyond repair; someone had punched a huge hole through an internal door; garden furniture was set on fire; speakers were chipped & damaged; the pond was full of detritus & all the fish killed as a result; and someone – someone really bright – had lit a blowtorch in the garden shed which is full of combustible stuff – that would’ve taken out the house next door if that had gone.

After hard questioning it transpired that the stepdaughter & her friends had decided to leave when they realised things were getting out of hand. OK brownie points for that BUT no brownie points for turning a blind eye and not telling an adult about the carnage being wrought over the road, about a neighbours (and friends house) being defiled. We could’ve done something about it had we known. 

So the hard bits. Lying to our faces & then choosing to save her own skin by not confessing to having been at an unauthorised party and by doing that allowing a neighbour’s house to be “trashed”. How do you even begin to dole out a punishment for that? Answers on a postcard please…

The Leaky Cauldron...

... no not really but much snappier than the leaky conservatory. So much for our gracious & spacious new open plan home & flash utility, we still have leaks!! Yes the weather tonight is exceptionally bad and what did I expect from the shonky conservatory we inherited? The rain & wind were so bad today the KC only managed about 15 minutes outside before she gave up - she was either soaked to her skin or blown off her feet & so at about 8pm she & I settled down to watch an old Sherlock Holmes episode on ITV3 as the gales whipped & the wind lashed. (FauxSurreyHubby out at works Christmas do tonight so just us girls)

Then just as Mr Holmes was getting to the good stuff I heard an unmistakable, loud wet "plop"; followed swiftly by another. Jumping to my feet my worst fears were realised - the water was sloshing from the roof onto a set of shelves & in another place rivuleting down a wall. Grabbing 2 huge bowls & rolls of kitchen towel to stop the splashing I managed to contain it. And thanked the lord it was nowhere near my newly decorated (and fabulous even though I say so myself) Christmas tree.  Now what was I saying about new carpets & we're done...?!!

Kitchen Sink Drama

 .. well not really no dramas at all  - I have a new kitchen sink. But not in my kitchen ... no no, my lovely new sink is in my shiny new and lovely utility room! We appear to be winning the war with this house & beating it successfully into submission, dragging it inot the 21st century! We did have a muddle of odd brick cupboards that led into the garages outside of the actual kitchen - it looked like someone had simply put a roof over a couple of old external brick sheds - so whilst the space was actually huge & useful the temperature out there was exactly that of outside so it was a bit of a waste of space & hence a dumping ground.

So FauxSurreyHubby & I did our sums & decided that as I am regularly employed these days (always been gainfully employed but not always regularly) now was finally the right time to sort it out. And so in less than 7 days, the freezing cold dark rather confused space has transformed into a warm & bright 2nd kitchen (not as big & flash as the picture but it's that kitchen!)

The unbelieveably quick & lovely builders have so far knocked out all the old cupboards & built a frame all over - walls, ceiling & floor & stuffed 4" of insulation in; they have built new walls & plastered, put a new ceiling & 10 bright halogen downlighters in, they have moved all the appliances that were out in the garage into this new space, given me 2 meters of solid wood worktop & put a fab butlers sink in! Next they will put a tall pull out larder in (like we had in our old 'perfect but dreadul location' house) and another 2 base units and another metre of worktop!! Then they will use the left over solid oak boards from the refitting of the downstairs in the summer and give me a lovely floor to walk on. So peeling spuds & parsnips & carrots for 10 on Christmas day will now be a joy. I am one Happy FauxHousewife :-) PS sadly the KC most unimpressed. Old cold dark cupboards meant lots of hide & seek & chasing spiders ...

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas ...

... especially at the Weihnachtsmarkts in Hamburg! Despite my being at deaths door when we left, FauxSurreyHubby & I had a fine old time (BTW deaths door is now closed as I have discovered - officially - I only have full on laryngitis; doc has just given me 7 days worth of full strength antibiotics and whilst the infection won't kill me the strict orders NOT TO SPEAK for at least 5 days might - yes yes, Christmas has indeed come early...! ).

Rugged up against the cold, damp & fog (oh there's the 3 hour foggy delay at Heathrow when coming home story but I shall park that), we were met by a lovely local friend shortly after we landed & were taken to the new Hafencity development out at the docks where we gazed at beautifully revamped warehouses, plush penthouse flats and (allegedly) the greenest commercial headquarters in the world.

Then we headed for the old red light district, the Reeperbahn, and as with all old red light districts the red had pretty much paled to pink & so we had amazing cake & hot apple juice with cinnammon in a very cool cafe, then our friend bid us adieu & left us to discover alone.

So off we went, back into the main part of the city where we strolled around the stunningly gothic Rathaus and glugged Gluhwein at the (almost open) Christmas markets and then headed into the shopping district where we quaffed pink champers atop a very swish store (think Harvey Nicks). Next day we dutifully visited the art gallery but it was all a bit too avant garde for hubby - imagine vast empty spaces with one "objet" per space - a path made of rubble, thick felt draped & shaped across a wall, a pile of sand with  look out towers peeking out of it and paintings of straight lines called "Untitled 1" ... not quite watercolours of landscapes (hubbys preference ...!)

Moving back into trendyville, we attempted to muscle our way into the small but pretty Scandanavian Christmas markets but we were thwarted - every time we tried to get past the main door we were held at bay by the omnipresent threat of coat ruination by small boys with chocolate ice cream & old ladies waving Weiners smothered in mustard!

Aside from that we slept a lot (gotta love the Marriot - super king, super firm beds, 450 count sheets & a dual aspect room which was an utter joy, especially given my rather precarious state of health) ate well & drank better & just hung out together & enjoyed one of Europes most laid back & beautiful cities.

For the uninitiated Hamburg is fabulous - awash with lakes & canals & a plethora of lovely bridges & small shopping malls alongside huge impressive gothic piles, cobbled streets & fancy department stores and we made sure we experienced it all. My German was good enough to avoid nuts for allergic hubby in a Thai restaurant & meat for me in all other restaurants so all was good. If I hadn't been carrying around my friend 'Larry Gitis' for the 4 days we were there this would rate up there with one of the best breaks ever...!

Ich Bin Ein Hamburger!

Cannot believe it was a year ago we were packing & getting ready to head to exotic China for a week to merge wedding anniversary celebrations with a bit of work. Today (whilst mainlining Benylin & vitamins & sucking extra strength Strepsils because I am still trying desperately to shake off vile cold) I am packing for somewhere slightly less exotic - Hamburg. Odd choice you may think, cold & German -  but no - I go frequently on business & love it. Every time I am there I call hubby & tell him how beautiful it is & that we really should go together one day & I regularly go past amazing restaurants & galleries that I cannot visit as I am always too busy. But not this time! No, this time is no work, all play. We will even stay at my business hotel as the area is fab - and the good old Marriot beds are great for my back so alles gut! We will be the relaxed ones at the front of the bus tomorrow morning in amongst all the boys & girls heading to work ...!

The Guilt Gift

What do you get if you add together "Veggie Might" & "To sleep perchance to dream"? You get a guilt gift!

Hubby felt so bad about keeping me awake with his nightly ear splitting snoring symphonies he went out & bought me Hugh's Veg book yesterday - no need to wait till Christmas now! And even more excitingly it was delivered with a promise - yes an actual promise - of one completely vegetarian day a week. This from a dyed in the wool utter & complete carnivore.

Maybe Hugh has got through? How excited am I??! Been sticking post it notes on pages all day.