T-Bird Anni Rides Again

Aprilia has a new craze.  It’s an online game called MoshiMonsters and basically it’s one of these things where you have a "pet" to look after but has a small twist, you have to play "brain training" type games to earn points to buy the food etc for your pet and to move up through the levels.  I have to say, it’s very good!  Obviously, me being me, we only have the free membership but really, i don’t see much advantage to paying £3 a month for what is just a bit of extra glitz rather than any extra function.  She’d play for hours if I would let her, it is very adequately filling that need in me for her to speed up her maths and logic skills by practicing reletively simple stuff against the clock and has given me the mornings to attack the latest TMA.  It does ask for age on sign up so I’m assuming the games change and get harder as she gets older, if not well, we move on to something else I suppose!

In other news, Duke is in Holland, feeling a little lost and lonely, being trained on some new laptop or other for a contract his works are tendering for.  It will secure the future of the company quite nicely and also give him another string to his bow.  We are keeping in touch via Chat on Facebook which is handy, I’m not entirely convinced we didn’t talk more last night than we would on a normal evening which is just a bit wierd!

I had a lovely conversation on the phone with friends yesterday, same friend that was texting me at random hours at the weekend plus his very lovely (and Seriously Blond) wife.  We are going to catch up properly on Saturday in Wales which will be fab, really hoping the weather is as good as last weekend as we are meeting at a rest halt on a classic car rally!  He’s been cleared on one of the accusations against him and been reinstated on one of the contracts that he lost which isn’t a huge payer but is invaluable on the "old boys network" and for his self esteem.  It’s time things started looking up for that boy…

I’m thinking about doing a proper Sports Massage qualification and am looking at distance learning with this one which I could do at my own pace etc but which, being distance learning, possibly would be difficult to justify as an entry qualification to a proffessional body (in order to be insured and respected etc) or maybe a couple of intensive one or two day courses, just this Sports one if they will accept my prior learning or if not I’d have to do this one first which would be interesting as there are some bits on the 2 day basic course that I didn’t cover at college but quite a bit I do already know or really don’t need to know….

Would just be nice to have some form of qualification that I can make some use of.  With the best will in teh world my OU degree isn’t going to get me any money any time soon really is it!

As no doubt already blogged in several other places, this weekend has been exceedingly pleasant.  There was sunshine, lots and lots of it.  There was a lovely, lovely spread of food including an unfeasable ammount of cake which somehow we managed to demolish between us and a goodly ammount of alcohol in various guises which I imbibed in a steady manner (amidst totally unjust taunts of my ridculously lightweight drinker status   )   There was a good, sturdy little tent that really didn’t get tested to any degree due to wonderful weather but which, according to Aprilia has a serious fault in it’s lack of soundproofing   I assured her I would keep an eye out for one

But most of all there was wonderful company.  It was lovely to just sit and talk with friends and know that Aprilia was happy with her friends too.  It’s something we just don’t do enough of.  Aprilia thrived on the fresh air and regular paddling sessions, many thanks to those who very kindly walked the legs off her etc for me!

Thank you very much to the Off the Pathers for hosting us, entertaining us and alowing us to invade your peaceful haven!

well, it was inevitable wasn’t it?  I get a new tent and we just have to check it’s all fine before first "proper" use really don’t we?  So last night we slept in the new Sigma+ in the back yard.  It’s very cosy.  It barely flapped in the wind.  It didn’t drip through the zips.  In fact the only thing I don’t like is that you have to crawl in and out, I’m just too used to walk in tents!  Oh and I wasn’t too impressed at Aprilia waking up at dawn and needing me to open the back door for her so she could go for a wee either   hey ho.

Today we seem to have had all 4 seasons which  means that the tent is still up as it’s not dry, it got nearly dry several times but never dry enough to pack away even if it will be coming back out of the back in a couple of days.

I’ve got the latest TMA half way there but I’m sort of stuck a bit now as I’m waiting for the last one to come back before I invest too much time in it… but it’s due in a week and a half and I’m fed up of  last minute stresses with this!  Sigh, I must secretly enjoy putting myself throught this…. otherwise why am I on my 3rd level 2 course?

but then the net crashed.  Sigh.

 so, erm, I’ll try again should I?

Friday.  Jungle Jim in the morning during which I had an asthmatic moment which left me ridiculously tired for the rest of the day.

 Saturday.   Kung Fu was good, was nice to hear from the instructors that she had done really well, she wasn’t sure.  After that we helped out at the May fair with Brownies.  It rained.  A lot.

Sunday.  I was at Oulton all day.  I got a huge amount of study done, so I’m ahead with the reading again and managed to do a fair bit of scribbling about the TMA too.  

Monday.  We didn’t do a lot although Aprilia did spend a lot of time doing "edutainment" games on the PC.

Today.  We had what is probably our last trip to one of the local play places which has now started charging £1 for babies under 1.  To be honest I don’t like it there anyway so it’s no loss to me but Nelly likes it there so we go every now and then but not now they are charging Nelly’s baby brother to sit and be cuddled!!!!  This afternoon Aprilia went to Nelly’s house with the intention of staying until Duke and I got home from Red Cross this evening.  I got another huge chunk of study done lots of scribbling for the TMA) but then had to go and retrieve Aprilia who had decided she didn’t want to stay after all…. sort of knew that would happen!  I do think that 2 or 3 hours at Nelly’s is really all she can cope with, she just does not do that level of noise!!!!

well, after dithering over 4 different ones from my local shop, I have, naturally, gone with one that Helen recommended from EBay!  So, I have bought a Sigma + and have fingers crossed taht it will arrive in time for SOTP otherwise we will be using the crappy Argos one for one last time and if it blows away down the valley we shall be "tent crashing" with whoever can find us a bit of space!

Now wondering about Delta pegs.  I know, bit late to wonder now and really, with a nice low, aerodynamic tent like the Sigma they are prob not necessary!

Okay, so we need a decent SMALL tent for such things as me going off with Guiders and for Aprilia and me going off for weekends on windy hillsides (like at the end of the month!)  the choices seem to be….

Wynnster Falcon - don’t know the name and I know I swore never to buy a tent if I didn’t know the name ever again after the last fiasco but this does look nice and roomy but is a little above what I want to spend

Vango Beta 250 - again a little more than I want to spend, and only 2 berths for that extra cash (we like 3 so that there’s a bit of space for Aprilia to flail arround in her sleep!)  but a nice big porch area for dumping wet coats etc

Vango Alpha 300 - it’s a dome, and domes are stronger, I know, but I’m not sure how much space there is outside the pod for dumping soggy stuff, but it’s much more our price range!

Vango Zetes 300 - this is looking favourite at the mo because it has a bit more porch space (but not as much as the first two) and is a price I can justify!

Arg!  like I *need* another tent….. but the Hobbit Hole is way too big really for just 2 of us and for just a few nights even though it’s been shown to be storm proof, the Outwell is lovely but I’m worried that a tall tunnel won’t take kindly to strong winds at Jan and Jonathan’s  and the old Argos one really is not fit for purpose any more since the cat ran all over it (and it leaked before then!!)

after the hilarity of me having to defend my sugaring paste from Aprilia whilst trying to wax my legs ("but mummy, it’s scrummy, can I have some in a bowl?") I gave the cheapskate cosmetics a rest.  But then decided that my gradually decreasing waistline deserved a treat to perk me up a bit.  Body scrubs being scarily expensive (especially when you have as much body to scrub as I have!) I reached for the kitchen cupboards again…..

There are loads of "recipes" on the web, most of them seem to use oats and really, I didn’t fancy trying to explain to Duke how I had blocked up the plug hole with oats in the name of getting nicer skin   so I kept looking!  I settled on one that uses coffee grounds, olive oil and brown sugar.  Sounds dreadful doesn’t it?  But I hvae to say, the bathroom smelt wonderful (you know, that fresh coffee smell?) it felt quite nice to use and this morning my skin does feel really lovely!  Felt even better for knowing that a) I had done something just for ME and b) the whole tub cost under £5 and will probably last ages so I can treat myself lots for not a lot of money

In other news, Aprilia is having a "quietly assimilating what she knows" sort of week, just lounging round doing bits and bobs then suddenly coming out with something really clever (you know, like reading big long words or telling me what 2 big numbers add up to!).  I spent a couple of hours yesterday plowing through one of my course books in the "new improved" digital audio format which is not nearly as user friendly as tapes but is much more compact being one CD rather than a box of 30 cassettes!  And we had a fab time at Rainbows doing some stuff from the Change the World Kidscape pack.  And I’ve linked to it because it’s free to download and got a lot of stuff that would be useful to other groups and families too. 

Friday Duke took the afternoon off work and we ambled off to carft/garden centre in search of a few more exotic plants for the greenhouse and came home with posh chocolate instead as exotic plant seller not there any more (sob)

Then it was Oulton for the night with least fave paramedic.  It’s ridiculously tiring having to watch every single word you say all the time to avoid offence or arguement but I did spend a fair chunk of the evening attacking my TMA which helped!

Saturday was Kung Fu in the morning at which I was slightly less of a chocolate fireguard than the week before (well, short of falling over in a heap i couldn’t be *much* worse than the week before   ) But it did give me leverage to say that I am def not doing next grading this next weekend as really I don’t deserve my yellow just now let alone an orange!  Aprilia will go as she’s doing ace, I will go to Wombwell and have a day with my most fave paramedic instead!  After Kung Fu I whisked Aprilia off to my parents, came home and was in turn whisked off but Duke… for a "date" consisting of a rather nice meal out followed by trailing round teh bike shop so he can put together a budget to justify why I should let him buy a bike……

Then it was Oulton (see above)

Sunday we faffed about all morning in the garden, collected Aprilia from mum and dad’s and Duke earned billions of Good Son In Law Points by sorting out mum’s PC and re-tuning the video recorder which had somehow got it’s knickers in a twist.

Then it was Oulton with a much nicer paramedic with whom I don’t have to watch what I say because he does not think that some of my best friends are the spawn of the devil and thus I am at liberty to safely mention  their names in the course of a conversation.

Which brings us to yestereday.  Now, normally after Night Three I sort of crash out for the day, do bggr all and let the caffeine drain out of my system gently.  But, usually Duke is at Oulton during the day and thus me and Aprilia can be left to our own devices safely!  He wasn’t there though, he was at home, in MY BED, where I wanted to be!!!!!   and then insisted that we be sociable and go to a big garden centre with his mum and sister.  It was very pleasant too, in an expensive and far too active without the help of caffeine sort of way!

So TODAY! I am having my planned YESTERDAY and doing BGGR ALL!!!!!   although I do have to plan Rainbows, excavate the kitchen and polish off a TMA……..