Exiting News!

Nope, we've not found any curtains, it's more exiting than that... Debbie started her new job on Monday!

Not looking for a job at the time, Debbie was given an opportunity she just couldn't turn down, working fewer hours with the chance to study for her AAT's if she wishes.

After a nervous first day, wondering if she'd done the right thing in leaving her former job, Debbie is settling in really well and it seems her new boss is turning out to be a dream to work for.

Her other new work colleagues seem like proper characters and even though it's only been 3 days, spirits are on the up and the happy bubbly Debbie is on her way back!


Paul

Run For The Hills . . .

. . . should you ever here the knee trembling phrase "I think we need some new curtains".

Spending all day on Saturday sorting out the spare bedroom was the hard part of the weekend, or so I thought until Sunday. How hard can it be to find a pair of blue or beige curtains? Well, after spending all day trudging round every textile boutique in town, it seems that this task is a tad harder than impossible. The impending decorating marathon in the bedroom, bathroom, living room and dining room will be a walk in the park in comparison.

Paul.

Mind Boggling

Finding time to write a post these days is quite a challenge...

Take our last entry, loading the pictures from the cameras, loading them into Picasa, selecting the best ones and exporting them to a smaller size, editing in Paint to put our blog address on, loading into Flickr, adding tags and descriptions, assigning them to sets and groups, grabbing the url of the ones we want to post, creating a new blogger post, adding the urls of the photos, type in the text, save, publish!

Five minutes break for a swig of coffee and a smokey, then check for comments on the blog, check for comments in Flickr, check the site stats, check MyBlogLog, check Technorati, fire up Google Reader and check everyone else's new posts and mark interesting posts as shared with a view to leaving a comment one day.

Another five minutes break and then check other news from the world wide web, see more references to sites like del.icio.us and Twitter, what's that all about, where do people get the time to send updates every minute of the day about what they're doing when we can hardly manage an update once a week!

Tell me, how on earth do you manage to fit all this in?

Paul.

Robin Hoods Bay

It's been none stop all weekend, rushing home on Friday to watch Comic Relief, out all day at Robin Hoods Bay on Saturday, out shopping half the day on Sunday and then Dad and Bro came for dinner. A sit down, that's what we need!

We had a lovely day out at Robin Hoods Bay, the weather was great, it's hard to believe it started snowing here on Sunday night! We got loads of great shots, the best can be found here.

Paul

Out In The Garden Again

We spent the whole of Saturday in the garden, firstly sorting out the border on the lower lawn and then set about creating a second border on the upper lawn.

It was back breaking work getting all that grass out but we did eventually have a new border. Just to finish us off altogether, Debbie got the chainsaw out and we cut down the large tree stump in the lower lawn and then lowered the stump in the new boarder.

We could hardly move on Sunday morning but still made it out for a spot of shopping, coming back with some climbing roses and loads of seeds. The roses have gone in the lower boarder and the seeds have gone just about everywhere.

We're still hobbling about today, hopefully by next weekend we'll be ready to do some more.

Paul.

There Be Gold In Our Garden

While waiting for the folks from the window company to come and replace some dodgy handels, I noticed gold flashing about in the garden.

Yep, it's taken over 18 months but I've finally persuaded some goldfinch to come to our garden as well as next door.

The chaffinch wasn't too sure and sat on the fence while he decided who had the best spread.

Paul

Lunar Eclipse

We started getting the garden into shape yesterday, unwanted bushes and the last tree (that was being held up by the bird table) are now in a pile ready for burning. We've mowed the lawn and put more seed down to cover the bald patches. Loads of weeds have come out and we've sewn loads of flowers so we should have even more colour this spring and summer.

Last night I kept popping outside to take pictures of the lunar eclipse, it was a bit of a nightmare getting the camera set up as it had to be on manual settings. I got there in the end but when the moon was fully eclipsed, I couldn't see it properly to focus and the end results weren't that good, hey ho, I'll try again next time :-)

Paul

Back On The Road Again

Apologies for the lack of posting lately, it's been a busy time for us since Christmas but hopefully some kind of normality is just around the corner.

I spent last week in Newcastle again on yet another course, I don't think my head can soak up any more information, it's ready for bursting now and I can feel those 3 brain cells marching about waving "I'm On Strike" placards. Hopefully that's it for a while, the Alan Partridge lifestyle is certainly not for me, I have absolutely no interest in a Corby Trouser Press.

It's not been the easiest of week's for Debbie either, suffering from a bad cold and having to make an important and difficult decision rather unexpectedly.

It's still all systems go, we had the double glazing fitted on Tuesday, it looks fantastic, it's not what we thought we ordered but I think what we've got, plain windows as opposed to Georgian fret, actually looks better. The big single window in the kitchen offers a great view of the garden and all the other windows seem to be letting in more light.

The best thing though is the new door, we can see who's lurking outside through the peep hole and if we want to open the door, we just turn the handle and it opens! What bliss! We don't have to risk pulling arms out of sockets trying to open it.

With the new windows opening inwards, there's no excuse for not cleaning them..... sheesh, there's always a downside!

Paul.