Time for some photowhoring...

And with that header I take great pleasure in introducing my son Jake to you all: -



and I have to be tremendously grateful to Rob for seizing the moment earlier in his Nan's kitchen and taking this wicked photo. It really captures his cheeky side whilst showing you lot that I actually produced something THIS CUTE from the fruit of my very own ovaries...

*takes a bow*

Made For Each Other!

Apparently I'm a Newborn Soul: -

You Are a Newborn Soul

You are tolerant, accepting, and willing to give anyone a chance. On the flip side, you're easy to read and easily influenced by others. You have a fresh perspective on life, and you can be very creative. Noconformist and nontraditional, you've never met anyone who's like you. Inventive and artistic, you like to be a trendsetter. You have an upbeat spirit and you like almost everything. You make friends easily and often have long standing friendships. Implusive and trusting, you fall in love a little too easily. Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul

And Rob's a Dreaming Soul: -

You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

So tell us something we didn't already know! How is it that I never seem to have too much time on my hands but I always seem to make it look like I do?

*ponders*

Pffffft! Finally,

I have got round to putting up all my wedding photos onto Photobucket. Found a nifty little Beta-thingy called Flock that helps you upload loads of piccies at once, I did 146 in one go (it struggled with 196 and only did the first 40 - but that's why it's still a Beta). If you're interested and wanna be nosey in my photo album then clicky here

[queen bitch rant mode]
Fuck me, families are really hard work sometimes, aren't they? Especially when they're not your own cos then you have to make twice as much effort to stay on the right side of 'em. Was trying to make sure I hadn't completely alienated myself by putting my foot in my mouth the other week and ended up shooting myself in the other one. Just cos I was being consciencious She-who-shall-remain-nameless thought it was her right to tell me exactly what was wrong me from her little perfect glasshouse where-she-can-do-no-wrong. The thing is, she's FAR from perfect herself and I'm the one person that has been friendly to her when certain other members of the family (who shall also remain nameless) spoke less than decently about her. At least if I have a problem with someone I try to sort it out as soon as possible, face to face - and I'd NEVER say anything behind someone's back that I wouldn't say to their face.

All this cos I made a joke that went down like a lead balloon. You know sometimes I'm funny, sometimes I'm not but the thing about it is that there is never any maliciousness, only humourous intent. I got to the stage talking with this person that I thought to myself "why in hell am I bothering?" Fuck it, if you can't take a joke then bollocks, it's not my problem.


Grow a fucking sense of humour.

*gets coat*

[/queen bitch rant mode]

Time flies...

so I've heard, and I can't believe it's been a whole week since I have managed to post something on here. Jake's not been well, I've been getting over my summer cold and now Rob's on his way down with it. BOOO!

After taking a couple of days off from jobhunting the week before cos of my cold, I started actively bombarding the agencies again this week and still nothing. The end of summer is always a quiet time cos the graduates have nicked all the good jobs and left the dregs for everyone else. Oh to be a student again; I'd love to go to university but I'm too damn old now and besides I'm a crap academic - ask me to write an essay over 1000 words and I'm stuffed, unless it's something i know really well and then try keeping me to the point and not wandering off on a tangent somewhere.

Speaking of tangents I was talking about jobhunting, wasn't I?

So no news this past week. Went up for a couple of things but not particularly hopeful, just cos my morale has slipped now but whatever.

Sad today as we had to say goodbye to some friends who are leaving next Saturday to live in Spain. We didn't see them much these days but they were one of the first couples I met through P4A (a bulletin board for real-time friends) a few months before I met Rob back in 2002. Even though we never got to see each other except on rare occasions I'm really going to miss them (on the BB as much as in person).

So farewell John and Molly, Bon Voyage and Bonne Chance (written in French cos I can't speak Spanish and it sounds more exotic than in English!).

Went to Sofa Sundaze at the 491 Gallery in Leytonstone to see John and Molly off earlier and although we've been there once before, we've never made it during the day. It's a really nice space to meet with friends and chill out and considering it's a squat (a legal one at that - from what I gather owned by Mayor Ken nonetheless and he's permitted the folks to use it for their projects) it's a lot cleaner than ones I've visited before. Jake had a nice time in the Kids Area, playing with cars and "duck-ducks" and we got his overalls on and we managed to get his hand and footprints onto canvas today (bought from the 99p shop in Leytonstone from what I've been told - that's what I call a bargain!). I'm really looking forward to framing them and putting them up in the house somewhere, either the lounge or the dining room, not sure yet.

They've got a really cool massive concrete firepit with arena-seating round the outside of it so you can keep warm... until you have to run away cos the smoke is making you choke to death! Looking to going to one of their "proper" parties at some point, I know we'll be at a private party there in November but aside from that I would like to see what other kind of all-nighter's they pull off in that space.

I started writing this around 9pm and it's now gone 1am. Not because I have been procrastinating but Jake's been almost inconsolable with his teething tonight poor little mite. He wouldn't let either of us near him, let alone hold him to comfort him or anything; I just felt totally powerless as I sat there and watched this poor little toddler screaming and thrashing and writhing around in obvious agony whilst grabbing his mouth and ear. I tried bringing him water in loads of different vessles to chew on, frozen carrot sticks, celery and he wouldn't even let me give him some Ashton and Parsons teething powders which he's normally so good in taking. It got to the stage where Rob had to hold Jake down on his cot mattress whilst I syringed calpol into his mouth with a pinched nose. I felt absolutely awful as he was screming the house down, to the point where I called NHS direct and just said to them "look, I've tried everything, what else can I do?" Typically, by the time the nurse had called back the Calpol had kicked in and he was all dopey and dozy cuddled up on Rob's shoulder. 15 minutes of cuddles with me later and he was in his bed and I held his hand and stroked his head for another 5 minutes till he went to sleep.


So (I daresay) I'd best go get some sleep till the Calpol wears off again and ting. *yawn* wish us luck for a good night's sleep, Rob's gotta go to work in t'morning too, poor bugger.

Taters (in sleepy green @ 01:13) x

a satisfying weekend...

Well, can't say I've actually *done* that much this weekend, but it's been nice - for that very reason I think. Saturday was mostly spent waiting for a call from Rob's mum to let us know when and where we were meeting up, then popping into town for a couple of bits and not actually managing to do most of what was needed. Mainly because we had to dash to Rob's mum and dad's for 5pm so we could see them before they went off on holiday. Spent a while with them then got Jake back to bed for around 8pm.

Bleached my hair and learned a valuable lesson in the process - that being NOT to put the toner on after bleaching; it had ammonia in it and it burned like you wouldn't believe. Imagine how much it would hurt if your hand was being forcibly held over a lit gas ring, and held there for minutes, not seconds. IT.BURNED.THAT.MUCH!

Decided it might be better to abandon the ash-blonde toning effort and wash it all off on account of my head feeling like the fires of hell and thought I'd reward my sensible decision with a large Baileys, or two...

Rob joined me and we proceeded to play the "I have never..." game, which wasn't as (either) insightful or depraved as I'd hoped, but interesting nonetheless. Polished off the Baileys (well that was a given!) and finally went to sleep around 3:30am *yawn*.

Thankfully I got up with Jake Saturday morning (we'd "rock, paper, scissors'd" for it, Rob chose!), so I was allowed a lie-in this morning and STILL Rob came in to wake me up when he took Jake up for his nap just to warn me that Jake might have a little whinge and wake me up (WTF is that all about?). Kinda misses the point there, doesn't it? One day I might get a lie-in where I actually get to wake up and get up when I want, but you know what? I'm not holding out much hope for a while. I'll just have to make do with whatever I get for the time being.

So my first three waking hours were surprisingly quiet and chilled, given that Jake was asleep upstairs and so Rob and I slouched about on the sofa watching "The Blue Planet" on UKTV History. Funny thing is that I've been wanting to see some real Anglerfish since Finding Nemo sparked my interest and I googled for piccies of them; and what do you know? One of the episodes featured mega-deep sealife (like, thousands of metres down, as opposed to the measly 18m that I'm qualified to dive to). I just sat there in complete awe, my jaw dropping on a regular basis while I was listening to David Attenborough explaining all about things that I'll never get to see in my lifetime.

Finally, around 3pm Jake woke up and it was off to Lakeside to complete the mission that we'd started yesterday. Got Jake his chubby crayons at the ELC (ooh, how exciting, I hear you say... welcome to my life!), and proceeded to New Look in the vain hope of finding some a top for me to wear to a job interview. As luck would have it (which it NEVER usually does for me when clothes shopping on a mission) not only did I find a really nice white shirt, but also a really smart pair of trousers and some boots that I know Rob wants me to model wearing clothes slightly less suitable for officewear ifyouknowwhatImean ;o)

I'm not thinking about the overdraft for the time being, the end justifying the means in so much as this now means I can get myself into a position of getting a job and paying it all off. Ho Hum, back on the ladder and all that. Let's just hope that I am well enough to be able to stick at it without falling ill again...

Here endeth the weekend :o( - it's been fun, and looking forward to the next one already :o)

Seconds out, round three!

Just nipped outside for a quick smoke before bed and the clouds rolled across the sky like James Herberts "The Fog". It's started raining again and I can hear the distant rumbling of thunder letting us know another storm's on it's way...

Armageddon..?

I didn't take these, but this is a pretty accurate description of the storm tonight...


OMFG! Just witnessed the most amazing storm I've ever seen in my life, it was a real doozie! The sky was lit up all shades of purple, yellow and white. Fork lightning like you've never seen before, except in movies and on nature programmes, streaking in witches fingers across the sky. I had easily been watching from my back door for 45 minutes, and I could have quite happily stayed there another 45 as it went on for a good couple of hours. The lightning made so many different shapes; spidering like tree branches, forking horizontally, vertically and even making the number 6 at one point during the unmissable display of mother nature's ultimate power.

Absolutely awesome, something I will remember for the rest of my life...

Fishies...

In the days leading up to us going away, Jake developed a growing fascination with the film Finding Nemo, and I at times found myself watching it in almost as much awe as him, thinking to myself "I wonder if we'll see this fish or that one". By the time we got to go out on the boat I was almost beside myself with excitement, being something of a wildlife fanatic. So you can imagine my serendipitous joy when the very first fish I saw on my first underwater descent was a Clownfish (and no, he didn't try and tell any poor jokes, he left that to me lol). Since we've returned I'm watching 'Nemo and catching myself thinking "Seen that one, and that one", if only I could remember their proper names, and not their character's names from the film I might actually make a good naturalist.


The fish to the left is called a Rainbow Parrotfish, and we saw more of these than I can remember to count. Their colours underwater are stunning, and I can imagine that they are as individual as a human fingerprint.

The little flouro fishy I can't remember the proper name of, but for the duration of the holiday I called them "Lara-fish" as the pink is my absolute favourite colour. Again we saw more of these than I can recall, and every single time it was a pleasure.

more pics

It's amazing how weightless you feel when you're underwater, considering everything you're carrying, but you sure know about it when you're trying to climb the ladder back on to the boat - most ungainly!





In this one I just felt like I was flying, in one of our dives Rob and I stretched our arms out, held hands and felt just like Peter Pan and Wendy, it was magical!













This is Rob, looking totally serene. although I think I have it on good authority that even remembering how to breathe can be somewhat of an challenge...










...but then you get to a point where there's so much to look at, you just forget about everything you *think* you're supposed to remember, like your breathing technique and stuff and it all comes completely naturally. Nothing else matters as you float around in this place that feels like a dreamland and you are completely powerless to do anything but gaze around in breathtaking wonderment like a child at Hamleys.

Something I'll truly never forget...

another pic...

That's me on the left and Rob on the right. This stoopid blogger thing isn't letting me post more than one pic at a time at the moment so I've had to do this the hard way *grrrrrr*

Back before you know it

just thought I'd stick up some piccies from Egypt, some I'll post here and some further above (problems publishing more than a couple at the mo). Amongst them are a rather graceful looking but dangerous Lionfish which I was belly to belly with on one of my first dives, and a Blue Spotted Stingray which Similarly I came face to face with. Strangely enough I was pretty wary of the Lionfish and not at all worried about the Stingray, then I come home and am greeted with the news of the tragic demise of Steve Irwin at the barb of a White Spotted Stingray. Poor bastard, he would *have* to be the lonely statistic of being one of only 4 people killed by a Ray in Oz. My heart goes out to his wife and kids, although I reckon he wouldn't have minded ending his days at the mercy of an animal. At least he couldn't say it was a creature he knew well or he'd have looked a bit foolish eh?

RIP Steve, I think you did a fantastic job of raising the profile of wildlife conservation into the eyes of children again. 'Nuff respect.

Jet-Lagged!

Man I'm knackered! Still haven't managed to shake the (measly 2 hour) time difference off yet. For someone who usually goes to bed between 12 and 1am I'm ready for bed around half ten.

Despite the absence of any energy I have managed to do loads this week, including update my CV, contact 6 agencies and interview with 2 of them, apply for 3 jobs AND vacuum the stairs; I can safely say that the stair-vacuuming was by far the most sweaty and exhausting, being as how most of the time I was lugging not only the bloody hefty Dyson about, but also a petrified toddler (he hates the noise).

Anyway, 'moff to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet, shall post some more holiday pics soon,

t'raaaa

Home again!

Well, we're back from Egypt and there's a pile of washing the size of Mt Sinai but I don't care, we had a magical holiday. No lie-ins and totally exhausted but definitely a holiday of a lifetime. We arrived at our hotel around midnight local time (10pm BST) after leaving my Mum's in Kent around 9:30am. Had to be at the Ocean College Dive centre at 8am (which was still 6am to us) AND had to have eaten too...

The next 3 days were spent as follows; Sun/Mon/Tues mornings in the classroom (trying to stay awake) and afternoons doing our confined water training in the hotel pool. The theory was so brain-crunching, learning all about Nitrogen Narcosis, Decompression Sickness and all the physiology of water pressure I was sure I was going to fail so on Wednesday afternoon you could've knocked me down with a feather when I found out I'd only got 2 questions wrong in the final exam! I have to admit though, I got to the questions on dive planning and completely blanked out, all the mathematical-type formula that we'd only covered that morning had completely left my brain. I sat and stared at the questions for over half an hour totally clueless and it wasn't until Rob sat back and laughed (I thought he was laughing cos he'd got it sorted, how wrong I was - he'd just totally blanked out too!), then all of a sudden 'BING'! and I just seemed to develop a "sod it" mentality and have a go.

Anyway, loads more to tell, but I'm knackered and I'll do some more tonight when Jake's gone to bed.

End of Part 1.


To be continued... in Aquamarine