Let it snow...

It's the end of november, I'm getting all christmassy, and right on queue it snows!

Me and Laura were in Ikea yesterday, which is half way between Wolverhampton and Birmingham and when you are inside you are hidden away in Ikea-land, unaware of the outside. Well we went to the cafeteria and turned around and then realised that in the 2 hours we'd been choosing a sofa bed and dining table that the car park had turned into a winter wonderland. More like a blizzard actually!

We carried on to Wolverhampton to see Hannah and smily boy Jack and the journey home was horrendous! Apparently Wolverhampton hasn't heard of gritting. You know when you are sat in awful traffic and then the radio traffic alerts start coming in warning not to go down the road you are on because it is at a standstill? Me and Laura were saying, yes thankyou, we have realised through gritted teeth! The journey took 3 hours and it's only 15 miles!!! Poor Emma is only 5 months old and was not happy with us at all, not to metion Laura had to change her nappy in the back - stinky poos!

Anyway here are some lovely photos from our visit, Jack's gorgeous, (although not at all happy to be woken up after his nap!) and they were both a bit amazed at the sudden appearance of the white stuff.

DIY resume

Well I've been recapping what this year has been all about, and three little letters sums it up quite neatly: DIY.

We have just finnished a major bit of work on the house, although we did need help from a carpenter and tiling man but we've done an awful lot of jobs ourselves. We walpapered the bedroom and Al put down the floor, built the furniture etc, painted virtually the whole house, walls dado rails etc, got a new aerial, got tree surgeons to fell our huge trees at the back, put pubbles down in the front and back gardens, built so much flat pack furniture, put up curtains and shelves etc, cut and finally did the kitchen.
Here's a before and after picture:
















This job seems to have taken over our lives for the last couple of months but we're into the final stretch, wallpapering, so that the dining room can be ready for christmas. We've invited Al's parents and nan and my parents over for christmas and I'm getting very christmassy!
The second picture was of Al cooking steak and Ale pie, he's a bit of a dab hand in the kitchen. He makes the best italian meat balls ever, yummy!

Technical problems

Well, officially the old gemandalinbrum.blogspot.com is dead. Long live gemandalex.blogspot.com...

For those of you that didn't visit the old one, shame on you! But welcome to the new and improved (and shortened name, just for you Lau!) blog. We'll add photos and news and even make the odd concerted effort to be bilingual. And I'd appreciate you all logging on and adding comments cause it's a lonely business if you don't hear from people, ok? Deal.

The old blog left off due to technical problems. I haven't been able to post a diary entry since the summer. I left my NEC job, was looking for a new one and life then was very different. It was all about summer bbq's, our god daughter Emma was born, our cat was mad and a bit less used to us and Alex had broken his wrist during a football game.

Since then I joined a company called Bright, Al's wrist is mended, the cat's still mad but just more naughty, and the little people in our lives, Jack and Emma will insist on getting bigger and delighting us with their foibles. 'Oh look, she's giggling... oh look she's sleeping... oh wow she's blowing raspberries'! Ah, time flies when you're having fun.

The Bright website is: http://www.bright-consultancy.co.uk so you can see what a load of friendly nuttters I work with
I also go to church, and it being quite a friendly modern-thinking church it too has a website: http://www.kingsnorton.org.uk/
Alex's football team is Moseley Town FC and their home ground is Billesley Common, so if you fancy seeing them they always appreciate a bit of home ground support! I'm planning to post their Birmingham Mail coverage as well so keep looking out for that!

Right well I'll try posting this, and saving any further technical problems it'll be on with the show! xxx