Sad News - the nation mourns

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4823834.stm
The 10 Downing Street cat Humphrey has died, a spokesman for the prime minister has confirmed.
The black and white feline passed away at the home of a Cabinet Office worker who took him when he "retired".
Humphrey was adopted by Number 10 after wandering into the building as a stray while Margaret Thatcher was PM in 1989.
He moved out six months after Labour's 1997 general election win, with Tony Blair's wife Cherie denying reports her dislike for the animal was to blame.
"I can confirm we have been told that Humphrey sadly died last week some time," a Downing Street spokesman said.
'Chief Mouser'
Official questions were asked in the House of Commons about Humphrey's absence after his departure from Downing Street in 1997.
A Conservative MP demanded proof that the moggy - sometimes given the nickname Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office - was still alive.
Downing Street said Humphrey had been suffering from a kidney complaint.
The media were later invited to a South London property, where Humphrey was photographed, hostage-style, with copies of the day's newspapers.
He had also gone missing while John Major was in Downing Street.
At the time it was thought he had died.
But he returned after staff at a Westminster medical college read his obituary and realised the cat that had made his way into their building was, in fact, Humphrey.

El gato de la casa del primer ministro ha muerto. El famoso "Humphrey" vivio en en el numero 10 desde 1989, cuando estaba la senora Thatcher. Desde entonces se ha desaparecido unas veces, huyendo por la ultima vez cuando llegaron los Blairs. La Cherie Blair se nego que le habia rechazado.

Cyber baby

Happy news to announce. Some of you may remember we went to visit our good friends Ruth and Phil. Well we are very chuffed for them both as they've announced they are expecting a baby! Yey! And we have picture evidence:















Isn't he/she a cutie!

Al's news

Al has been given a promotion at OCR, it is now official! He will be subject officer for PE and he starts the week after his birthday. Very chuffed for him!








Al ha conseguido otro empleo dentro de su compania corrente, OCR. Es una promocion y estamos muy felices!

Masters of the Midlands

This is an except of the industry's leading title, covering the PRIDE awards where we received our multi-award winning success. As you can see, the 'big' awards, like consumer campaign or business to business are relegated below the traditionally smaller campaigns because of the perceived status of the winners. Not sure if it's too small to read but it makes you wonder...

another week going by

Well since going to see the film with my parents we've had more than a week, full of fun and frolics... On Friday me and Alex had dinner together and did what we haven't done for AGES - we watched a film together. We generally sit down to watch a dvd, but it tends to be comedys. We've got loads of films that we've never even seen once, even though we both love films. We watched 24 Hour Photo, with Robin Williams and it was very good even though the ending was a bit pants. It was a lovely evening, the cat decided she needed some personal space and left us to it!

Then on Saturday we both did some more diy. I painted the top half of the hallway, it still needs a second coat but it's getting there. It is a nice very pale lilac with a gentle sheen to it... very nice! My friend Jess from church came over for a cup of tea and a natter. Then Alex had an absolute victory - he finally managed to fix the light fitting in the upstairs living room! For six months the centre of the ceiling just had a hole - now it has a smart little light! Alex must have worked on it for a total of about 18 hours over the last 6 months! What a guy! Picture to follow!

He cooked a meal for Nathan to eat while they watched the football and I went over to Laura's where she had cooked a stew and me her and her best mate Emma watched a film and nattered. I also saw The Breakfast Club for the first time - actually quite good for the bratpack era. Finally I left her asleep on the sofa and walked home. It was a good night!

Then on Sunday Alex's football match was cancelled due to too much rain. We were both able to attend Leah's baptism - Nathan's niece. It was unlike most baptisms I'd been to as it was a catholic ceremony, yet all those catholic services with the brownies must have sunk in because I was able to join in with some prayers I hadn't voiced aloud since being a small child!

We had sunday lunch with Alex's parents, drove Dos home, and went home to rest and prepare for the next week!

Walk the line

For those of you who don't know, I'm a secret Johnny Cash fan...

I bought 2 albums a few years ago on the pretence that they wer for my dad on his birthday, and ended up listening to them more than he did! So this week, finally I got to see, Walk the line. And it was great! There are so many good films out at the moment. And I'm also excited because I ordered the Walk the line dvd and the Harry Potter dvd already - to arrive in May and April!!!

If you're wondering whether you can bring yourselves to watch the Cash film, go and see it, it's great!

Para los que aun no lo sepan, soy un fan del cantante americano Johnny Cash, y este semana fui con mis padres a ver la peli. Es muuuuy bueno, delicado, interestante y aunque podria fijarse demasiado en la vida de un hombre celebre, solamente se fija en el hombre - quizas es eso que le haga una peli tan buena... Si no saber si quieres verla - vete! es magnifico!

The weekend

This weekend was really cool for several reasons. I wasn't too late leaving work and Alex didn't have to work for the first time and he didn't have a football match for the first time this season - it was a bloody miracle! Anyway, we visited Phil and Ruth in their new house - I say new because we hadn't seen it before so it was new to us, but they've been there for a year or so already! Amazingly, they've been married for nearly 2 years! I can't keep track! Phil went to Birmingham uni with us and he and Ruth had been an item by then for years already... and it's great that we're all still in touch. Ruth cooked veggie lasagna and we had some wine and lots of laughs. The cats, Polly and Prescot, were kittens when we last visited them in Kings Heath, all eyes and tails and whiskers. Now they are great, fully grown lumps!

On Saturday we had a lie in (yes this is newsworthy!) and Al got cracking on fixing 3 light fittings while I finished painting the extension, it's much warmer now. The mad people who previously owned this house need shooting by the way for their cavalcade of DIY debacles! The wiring is a nightmare, they painted over everything, they chose terrible colours and shortcuts that make your eyes water... Mind you, after seeing the mistakes made in other people's houses (Nathan and Laura, Ruth and Phil to name a few) I suppose we're not so badly off. Anyway, after Al swore the air blue we were 6 hours down, one light fitting better off, and had 2 to go.


Then we got ready and we made our way out for Nathan's birthday night out, one week late! Alex had worked last week so Nathan had postponed his celebrations and it was a good night. We went to the Jug of Ale pub in Moseley - this is a good pub if a bit rough and ready with lots of touring bands visiting and cheap drinks. As a result we had another lie in on sunday, shock horror!




Plan was to go to church, but I didn't make it or even come close! But I did do a good job of painting the hall, which we bought the paint for before Christmas, so it was about time..! Other than that and the blog we did pathetically little today and it was grreeeaat! ha ha!

Este fin de semana fuimos a ver dos amigos que no habiamos visto desde hace mucho. Phil hizo Estudia de Historia a la universidad de Birmingham, donde nos conocimos. El y su mujer viven ahora en una casa que compraron hace un ano en Acocks Green, Birmingham, y fue genial verlas. El sabado hicimos trabajo en la casa, yo pintando y Alex quiso luchar con las luces de la primera planta. Despues salimos al pub The Jug of Ale. Este pub ha sido un local para nosotros para casi una decada, y fue una buena noche. Era el cumpleanos de Nathan, y nos lo pasamos muy bien! Hoy, la verdad es que hicimos muy poco. He pintado el vestibulo un color lila muy palida, pero aparte de estoy he conseguido muy poco hoy. Y estoy muy feliz!

Two Thousand years

Last night me and Leon met up after work and drove to Warwick University's Arts Centre in Coventry. We met with Danielle to watch the latest Mike Leigh play, Two Thousand Years. Mike Leigh is famous for other plays like Abigail's Party and Vera Drake, although I am not familliar with them myself. Anyway it was a really great play: interesting, funny, and very intelligent. Me and Leon and Danielle felt we were learning while watching it because it was about a Jewish family analysing their roots, and while I know a bit about the Jewish fait, I know relatively little of the socioeconomic or political history as a nation.
See the eflyer here:
http://nationaltheatre.e-flyers.org.uk/TwoThousandYears2/?v=warwick
In summary, it was really good! visit Warwick Arts Centre online at:
http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/events/id/2538

Ayer noche yo y mis amigos Leon y Danielle nos reunio para verla mas nueva obra de arte del dramaturgo Mike Leigh, famoso por un par de otras obras. El veredicto es que fue muy bueno e interesante... es sobre una familia hebraico analizando sus raizes, religiosos, politicos, historicos. Y fue muy natural, vi cosas que me hicieron pensar en mi familia; reuniones, costumbres, fricciones, estupidezes que te hacen reir. En fin, fue muy buena.

A catch up

Well this weekend wasn't that exciting. Alex, poor love, worked all weekend Saturday and Sunday and I pottered, mopped floors, cleaned and dusted the house. Then me and Alex met on the sunday after he finished and went to Brindley Place by the canals and had a very late lunch at Cafe Rouge. It was lovely to finally meet up and spend a few hours together.

Then on Monday me and Laura and little baby Emma went on a road trip visiting wedding venues. It was great to have the day off and we spent the whole day driving around country lanes and the Warwickshire/Worcestershire countryside is beautiful. We went to Charlecote Park Hall, part of the National Trust and opposite visited a hotel that was very lovely called the Charlecote & Pheasant. The village is the most idyllic also, and we were very impressed. It was great having Laura because she works in a hotel as a wedding coordinator and asked questions that I wouldn't have thought of. We went on to Droitwich - that town is like a mini bermuda triangle - I always get lost! Then Bromsgrove and Redditch. The other highlight was The Rectory. It is the most beautiful little hotel ever - each room is individually done out and it's family owned. I fell in love with the place. Then the lady sat there and cooly said the cost would be around £6000 and I lost all the feeling in my legs!
Ok so, we're progressing...

On another note, yesterday was Pads' first anniversary. We don't know her birthday so this was our chance to spoil her! We also made pancakes as it was pancake day (Shrove Tuesday). So it was quite a momentous Tuesday!

Now the computer is back in the shop so blogging's been quite difficult, apologies! I'll let you know what happens with that - the computer guy forgot to connect the floppy disk plus we've had more virus problems... evil viruses!

El lunes pasamos, yo y mi buena amiga Laura y su preciosa hija Emma, conduciendo entre hoteles para organizar la boda... hay tantas cosas que no habia pensado... pero tenemos dos sitios que son muy especial, y Alex y yo iremos a visitarlas pronto. El dia duro 8 horas y Emma fue un angel - casi no lloro durante todo el dia!