Sign of the times?

Last night hubby and I spent a good two hours watching the Comic Relief Great British Bake Off on the iplayer. We giggled all the way through at everyone particularly at the portrait cakes and marveled at the Bakewell tarts. At 10pm we switched off and went to bed, a lovely night in.
This morning as I reflected on this I had to have another giggle. When I met M (or even two years ago) he would have preferred to poke his own eyes out then subject them with watching such torture. Up until very recently I would have been writing now about how I was stressed about how old we were, how sad it was to be in watching baking programmes on a Saturday night. I think finally I am learning to be happy with who I am and what I am. Times they are a changing, I really enjoyed being in, chilling out, having a cuddle and a laugh. If this is the future then I'm comfy with it...

Aarrgghh

Aarrghh!
Wow! I am a bit overwhelmed today...so much going on my head is swimming and I'm feeling very stressed!
I suffer with panic attacks and times like this it is very easy to feel myself tipping towards one!
So immediately I move towards my coping strategies:
1) Chocolate (2 rich truffles consumed immediately upon entering the house)
2) Rant about everything safely without worrying about perspective to "get it out the sysytem". (blogging now!)
3) Go through issues one by one rationally and address each one on it's own calmly. (Job for when the boy is bed).
4) Make a list of things that can be done to resolve each issue. Anything that cannot be resolved by something concrete write on "unresolvable" sheet.(another job for tonight).
5) work through list. (Tomorrows jobs!).
Ok at least I have a plan...

Dear Snow,
It was so nice of you to drop by, we haven't seen you in so long. We were excited that you were going to be able to fit us into your crazy schedule. When you arrived on Friday we leapt out of bed with anticipation, we grumbled when school and work had to carry on. We giggled and laughed as we sledged home from school. It was a great day!
On Saturday I smiled and cheerfully struggled on as I slipped and slid my way uphill out and about...made it more fun and all that. Except by then my boy had had to miss his football debut and a friend had to cancel their birthday party. The Waitrose man gamefully managed to get the shopping to the house and the rabbit was seriously unhappy! Still we said "make the most he won't be here long!"
Today is Sunday and you are still here...and indeed there is more of you! And to be honest I've had enough. The wet, the cold, the biting wind. The inability to drive without digging the car out first and then driving at 5mph or slower to avoid a death slide. We have visitors who would like to come for lunch and a birthday tea to get to tonight. In short Snow we have a life and we'd like to get on with it!
So I ask you please to go on your merry way and leave us in peace. You can come again...for a day...in about two years time...it will be nice to see you again.
Fondest regards
Laine x

Good times

Very lucky to have good friends:

1 gave me a cuppa after a very cold school run, 1 gave me some super headache tablets when I was feeling poorly today and I met another old uni mate for a coffee, shop and lunch session today.

Good day, good friends, good times.

10 things I have learnt about me.

Life is a learning curve :) here are then things I have learnt recently.

1) I like cooking for other people.
2) I can no longer cope with staying up till 1am.
3) I actually like to go to bed by 9:30pm.
4) I need to drink a cup of tea in the morning before I leave the house in order to function.
5) I am a great deal dafter than I previously accepted.
6) I am better at playing shooting and fake dying with my five year old than I thought I would be.
7) I need a good half an hour to myself in the course of a day.
8) I will never understand all the complexities of all the different Star Wars characters and plotlines.
9) I am much more confident in myself than I was a year ago.
10) I am not as confident in myself as I would like to be in a years time.

Commercial Chickens?!

At the weekend I purchased a box of 6 eggs...nothing wierd there...except:
The box calls them "baking eggs", this was fine when I bought them as primarily I needed them for banana cake but now on Tuesday I face a dilemma. K my constantly hungry 5 year old has just had tennis after school and after tennis he always has "Dippy Egg" (boiled egg and soldiers to you and I) and so here's the rub: Can he eat a "baking" egg as a dippy egg or does he need a different type of egg? I could do without this sort of brain taxing issue at teatime on a Tuesday. After all surely the chicken has no idea that it is laying "baking eggs" or "dippy eggs" or "fried eggs" or "poached eggs" or indeed any other type of egg it just lays an egg! Therefore surely Mr(s) Marketer should just label the box "Eggs" and leave us poor consumers alone to contemplate what to do to said egg in peace!

Too Fresh?!

Today I tried to buy bread in a well known supermarket (pat my bottom) but was unsucessful due to the bread being and I quote: "too fresh to slice!"

I picked up several nice bakery loaves and tried to get the assistant to slice one...she turned every one down saying they were too fresh and would just go squishy in the machine. Now call me picky but in a supermarket this big you'd think they'd stagger the baking so that not every loaf on the shelves were fresh out of the oven wouldn't you? Obviously not, how totally frustrating I left minus my bread and a bit fed up. Now I know I should  just buy the fresh one take it home and slice it myself but I can't...I mean literally can't! Every time I try my slice ends up really thick at one end and the loaf all crooked, I have also cut myself several times and M says the loaf looks like it's been ravaged by a hungry animal. So please supermarkets...stagger the baking please!!!