Good ideas I came across

Wow, so if you're feeling far from 'carbon neutral' and getting married like me, you might be interested in these MarryMe/CarbonNeutral Wedding packs!
Going to research world-friendly cars for the poorer end of the market - think they've got any for people like me or just for flash b####rs?

Dad's birthday

A few weeks ago, on the 19th October, the big day itself, we celebrated dad's birthday.
We surprised dad and mum (I do like planning surprises) with a get together. We were met by auntie Shelagh, uncle David, Graham, Alex, uncle Bob and auntie Sheila. I think the birthday boy had fun!

And today we move one step closer to the Christmas Fun Run... Being held in Worcester, Dagenham, Gloucester, Stevenage, Evesham and Stalybridge(?) it'll attract thousands of fun runners raising money for Leukaemia CARE. I'm helping to organise it. (more info at http://www.xmasfunrun.co.uk/)

Since the Great North Run

It's been, quite frankly, a bit mad!
Very very busy. Celebrated Dad's birthday - we went to a restaurant called Strawberry Bank, although everyone else enjoyed their meal I didn't think much of mine. It was a bit sickly. But then I'd been recovering from the lurgy for the previous week; I had swollen glands and felt generally rough. Everyone at work seems to have come down with something or other so work has been a bit hard.
I've had 3 days of training also, I went to London for CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) training a couple of weeks ago, which was really good, and a 2 day Mac training course in Illustrator, which was also really useful. I think it's ironic that out of all the companies I've worked for, some huge, important companies and some smaller, the one to actually invest in my training is a charity.
I have to say, busy as I've been, crazy as it's been, I've loved working marketing a charity and long may it continue...
Off to church, speak soon.

chicken trouble

Newsflash

Has anyone got any idea about chickens? Hannah's chickens have stopped laying eggs and are losing their feathers! Does anyone know if this is normal behaviour? Answers on a postcard please to...

Great North Run

Leukaemia CARE had 150 runners participate in this magnificent event and I was there to meet them. My goodness, what a busy weekend I had!

We drove to South Shields, Newcastle, 5 hours away. It was the first time I've ever experienced anything like it... Here are the pics:

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside...

oh we do like to be beside the sea...

oh we do like to walk along the prom prom prom

where the brass band play tiddleyompompom...

The charity village at the Great North Run - finding your charity's tent in and amongst all those balloons is almost as difficult as the 13 miles you've just run...

Behold the greatest balloon arch in the world: I want you to know we created that with the aid of our own bare hands (and 2 cannisters of helium!) We were there from 7am getting it ready for the runners.

One of our three fantastic massage therapists. I swwear this man never stopped smiling. They hardly took a break and massaged at least 25 runners each. Some runners arrived in quite a sore state but all walked away, many of them smiling too!

Some of our runners - they appeared on the BBC website!

The wedding - ours that is

Got very flustered by a certain Richard, one-time manager of Epic, where our wedding reception had been planned to be held. Very crappily he failed to mention our booking to any member of staff, the owner, chef or his new deputy manager before he swanned off without a care in the world or, apparently, a forwarding number/address. The said establishment is going into liquidation. I understand he moved to Wales, so CAUTION ALL WELSH PEOPLE if you meet a round-faced english man called Richard. If he makes you a promise that sounds too good to be true it probably is just that.
Wonderful place called the Queens Head Inn came to the rescue, the lovely Gianni is looking after us now - I feel so much happier!

The last few weeks

We got back from holiday at the end of august mid-way through a very busy 3 month period in which absolutely no weekend was not booked up and scant evenings, lunchtimes, breaks, even drive-homes were calm oases of rest.

So finally on the horison appears a weekend where we have no official plans and I can gather my thoughts and fill you all in on what's being going on.

3 weekends in a row I had a wedding to attend, so that was a bit crazy! Fristly Fiona and Cos got married in Oxfordshire on the farm he, James, grew up on (who knew he was a country lad?). They had a lovely evening, in a marquee that made me think a lot of the film '4 weddings'... complete with fireworks, a first dance and a free bar!

Alex has played football with James (Cos, or Cosmic to his friends) and the Moseley Town team for 4 years, and all the team practically were there that night.

The next wedding was a BioCare reunion and a great chance to go out with Laura for a dance, since on holiday we sadly missed out on having a girly night. The bride was the lovely Kim Nation, who is BioCare's Despatch department manager and a really nice lady. She was getting hitched to Fiona's brother, Fiona also worked at BioCare when I did, and so did Kim's daughter Claire, so all in all the wedding was a bit of a work do... It was great to meet up with Linda, Chris, Mary and even seeing my old manager Karen was lovely, just to make sure there was no weirdness or anything.

After this came the 3rd wedding and the fifth of the summer, Richard and Katie's wedding. Richard and Katie's wedding was due to take place in June I think, well I can't remember the exact date but if you can think back to the height of the flooding then you've got it pretty much pinned down. Poor darlings! So it was only right and proper that they got a beautiful, sunny september day and a dry evening and night. It couldn't have gone any better and they couldn't have looked happier with it all. We stayed at a sort of b&b. When I tried to book our stay before the wedding got called off everything was fully booked so I was told to call Denise Blanchard who keeps a bungalow for private lodgers. So we conversed quite a lot in the end what with the flooding and when we arrived I felt like we were nearly old friends. The plus sides of this arrangement were we stayed in the BEAUTIFUL cotswold village of Bredon, a few villages along from Beckford where the wedding took place. Both Cos and Fi and Rich and Katie all encouraged their guests to camp in the fields alongside their venue. But me and Al don't seem to be of the camping ilk, plus neither of us owns a tent. We took a walk through Bredon and took in the sights before going for a pint at the local pub. Then, back home, we had some trouble booking a taxi as we were in the wilds of the cotswolds, so Denise's friend and neighbour (who she's still feeding daily since the flooding destroyed the downstairs of his house - who says there's no Blitz spirit?) gave us a lift both there and back home at midnight!!! God bless Richard, I hope your house gets rebuilt very soon.

More of the story

A beautiful view from the top of Sitges, we walked around the old town before plunging into the sea to cool off for the afternoon. Lovely day!









Mine and Alex's next pad; it's a bit bigger than our house is but I expect we'll be able to fill it up! It's on the sea front in Sitges, has 2 sun terraces and 5 balconies, should just about do!!! Like it?









The Tiets came to visit us which was brilliant!! Here we all are in Cubelles. Emma called Tiet grandad (well her name for it is 'dandad'! she even called him avi. By the end of the night she was saying 'si' 'gracies' y 'salud'!!)









On the beach in Cubelles, what fun! Al's an expert at keeping out of the sun, but no one got burned apart from me - I slightly singed my bum!

La cena at Albinyana- very good food and a splendid last night.

The saga begins...

Our holiday was a lot of fun..! Here are a few pictures and the story will follow...

Alex implements a rigorous sun protection policy...

AquaLeon water park and safari






















It took them a week but our boys finally matched! bless...

Emma learning that there is a way of keeping daddy quiet...

Emma and her Sandy Boy and the boys keeping Emma busy - we visited at least a park a day, this one was in Villa Nova i la Geltru

Back from our holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're back after a lovely 8 days in Cubelles... Wonderful
Many bits of news to tell but it'll have to be updated in a bit cause I've got washing and tidying to do! My spanish held up and we saw els tiets which was wonderful. Emma had a great time, and so did we all but it was so nice to get home last night. Pads missed us!

Spot the dummy

Can you see me?

Bertie Blood Cell is the Leukaemia CARE mascot!

Wedding pics

These just came through, all together now, aaah!

Cute exchange

Emma's birthday

A couple of weeks ago it was a beautiful saturday morning and it wasn't raining or flooding or anything! It was the morning of the Kings Norton Festival, and the village rallied round to put on a lovely 'do'. I met Alan Naylor, a supporter of Leukaemia CARE since being disgnosed with Leukaemia a few years back and together we looked after a stall for the charity. It was such a nice day!







From there I walked to Nathan and Laura's for Emma's 2nd birthday party. The good weather held and the barbeque was a great chance to catch up with all the Collins and Nunnerley family, most of whom we hadn't seen since the wedding. Hannah and boys Jack and Ozzie were there, all of Emma's cousins, Laura's sister and our friends; it was a really good bash!

Then to top it all off, the piste de la resistence, the finale to every good barbeque, we had a ball fight! It erupted after Laura's mum quietly started collecting the balls from Emma's ball pool and then started chucking them - then the boys weighed in and we were all caught in a flurry of balls for about 20 minutes! I laughed til my sides were about to split! My face ached, and the balls kept flying. I got a few good shots in too, Alex teaching me how to throw has finally paid off. As the evening wore on me and Al were one of the last left, sitting out in the garden til gone midnight, telling jokes. The only problem was I'd caught sunstroke a bit so I was freezing! But it was a great day, Emma had a brilliant time!