My new buddies

Gerry Giraffe, Leonard Lion, Pete the Parrot, Horsie the horse and Mr Piggerson...
Ellen loves these little creatures and we spend hours putting them in and out of the farmhouse.

Snot

Aw, my little Ellen has got a cold, a baby cold.

So a big AAAAAWWWWW for her.

Tomorrow you'll have to do a big OOOOHHHH for me, when I probably catch whatever bug she's got and feel like ratshit!

Good night

Holidays, Nurseries and time to myself

Got back from Crete late Sunday night. Had a lovely time, thank you very much. Spent our time on the beach, by the pool, eating too much, drinking too much, sleeping too much, wandering about in Elounda looking for cute little tavernas with good cocktails, road-tripping to Souda Bay and generally just lazying about.

My favourite cocktail that was frequently ordered: Screaming Orgasm - in other words lots of Baileys, Kaluha, Amarula, Cream and got knows what other super-unhealthy substanses. Steve stuck to his beers and Ellen sipped Pineapple Juice.

Below a photo of the area we stayed in, Elounda. Lovely lovely hotel.



Well, I don't quite know what to say about this photo...

This is Steve and Ellen in the back of the hire-car, while we stopped for a snack on the way to Souda Bay. Three hours drive there, so it was an all-dayer. Ellen seems very pleased with her chocolate biccie.

And finally another shot from the hotel, looking out over the Cretan Sea.


And today was a big day. Ellen (yes...did I mention I had a daughter?! This blog seems to be all about her, rather than me...) had her first day at nursery. Bless her little white cotton sockies, she was so brave and I waved her goodbye about 9am this morning. Picked her up at 4pm because I missed her so much, and couldn't possibly wait another minute. She'd eaten aaaaall her lunch and been soooo good. Talk about proud mum! Its just the strangest thing seeing your tiny little baby (who is now a tall toddler, but I can't really see that...) sitting in a chair, chewing a ricecake and having an independant life, without me. She's her own little person.

Oh, and did I mention she had her own little hook! A little hook on the wall with her name on it, and a little picture of a duck. I was over the moon with that, almost pulled out my phone to take a picture of it, but stopped myself before I made a complete fool of myself.

Anyway, it was so nice to have the house to myself, to have myself to myself...not having to carry someone round, not having to change any nappies, not having to pick up squashed banana from the floor, not having to sing "If you're happy and you know it" about 50 times...I could go on.
I really enjoyed working again, altough I feel a bit rusty. But a few more days and I will be back in it I am sure.

Oh, did I mention Indy my younger dog has lost weight. Oh yes, we call him "Slimline Mindy" nowadays. The dog-sitter we used while we were away loved jogging, and apparently got Indy hooked on it too. So his bottom is no longer the size of Bournemouth, but more the size of a ridgebacks bottom! Weight Watcher of the year!

Me & Jessica are like this....

I decided about 5 months to cut my hair...
This morning I finally got round to doing it. Ahhhh, it was heaven.

I'd been scanning the web for some lovely hairdo's and found these two (below) that I printed out and brought with me. Good old Jessica Simpson & Sienna Miller. I asked the hairdresser if I could have Sienna's face as well, she said of course. So I'm back home with Jessica's hairdo and Sienna's face...



BEFORE:

AFTER:

Birthday Party & Cricket

Spent yesterday in the garden, mowing, strimming but mainly building our new garden pagoda. It took a while but amazingly we finished it. Steve was dangling off a ladder putting the finishing touches on.






About 3 o'clock our friends came round for a barbeque and some drinks. Really lovely day!

Here are some pictures:

Dentist again

Went to the dentist on Monday morning to have a filling fixed. It had worn away and I had to have 3 injections to numb my mouth before removing the old filling. My mouth felt so swollen and my tounge was just ridiculous, I could hardly speak. My mother-in-law suggested I drank my tea through a straw, which worked a treat, but apart from that the whole day I felt horrible and the injection makes me feel totally depressed.

Anyway, that SAME afternoon, the new filling gave up on me too...
So the whole day of suffering was for nothing and I had to ring up Tuesday to make a new appointment.

So today is the day, back to the dentist at 1pm to sort it out again. I am dreading it and the thought of those 3 injections...brrrrr....makes me shiver.

Sympathy please

Sunshine

Oh what a morning. The sun is shining, the birds and chirping away and Ellen let me sleep til 7.30am!!! Can you believe it. For weeks and weeks, its been 6am and a minute later. So hurrahhhhhhh for today!

Today I am going to check out a nursery for Ellen. Its just up the road and if I am going to start working once or twice a week, we need to find somewhere for Ellen to hang out. Will see how it goes.

Then, got a friend over with her 4 month old son Archie. Going for a walk in the sunshine and possibly a spot of lunch.

Its Steve's birthday today. Going to make some breakfast in 30 minutes and wake him up with some pressies and breakfast in bed. We're going out for dinner tonight so that will be nice.

Last night we went to the pub for the pubquiz. Usually Wednesday's quiz is way over our head and we hide under the tables when they read out the scores, but last night we were rockin'. The two of us came second with only 1 point less than the winning team of about 15 people...or something like that...
I was knocking back Whiskey and Cokes and that obviously helped my brainpower..!!!

Anyway, its time for me to get cookin. Birthday boy is waiting!

Over and out

Fizzier than a fizzy thing...

Just thought I'd let you all know I am super-fizzy. Excited. Buzzing. Sprudlande hyper exalterad.

FIZZ FIZZ FIZZZZZZ

New Look - thank you very much

The sun is shining today, can you believe it. And no, I am not in the part of UK that is flooded (thank you all for asking) We have had a crappy summer, but no floods thank god.

Shades on, ipod on, pram out, Ellen into pram, off we went. Took a walk in to Wickford to meet Lisa and little Lauren for a quick chat and drink. Then we wandered in to New Look and can you believe it - they have introduced a "Tall" range. 36'' legs and all sorts of jeans, trousers, tops and god knows what. I would like to thank Mr God for being so kind to me.

Feeling really tired today for no reason. I fell asleep at 8pm in the sofa last night and woke up at 10pm when Steve got back from football. Then slept all night til 7am. Still tired. Why? No idea.

Tomorrow I've got my favourite BodyCombat again. That always wakes me up. Punching people's noses in, oh yessss.

Tonight I am going to eat Piri Piri Chicken, drink some wine and watch "Bachelor". Its chill out at its maximum. Brainless tv-watching and nice food. Then night night from me.

Good night to us

Finally our little sweetheart daughter has got the hang of this sleeping business!
She used to wake up anytime from 6am onwards and would normally not sleep past 7am. NOW! The last few days she's slept til 8am!!! Whoooopppie scoooopie! Lovely lovely!

Makes such a difference to your morning, when you actually get up feeling like your "supposed" to be up, not like you're the only person in the world up at that ridiculous time in the morning.

So thank you little Torro for letting us sleep. Torro=Ellen by the way. Don't ask. Silly nickname - Long story

Tomorrow if a Golden Train...

GOLDEN TRAIN
Don't you wake up yet
give me some time to watch you asleep
Oh angel of mine And I,
I will be fine as long as your near me Oh angel of mine

Was just sitting channel-surfing during the weekend, and happened to turn to VH1. Jo Whiley was kind enough to put Justin Nozuka on. Golden Train...volume went up, I was speechless for a while...loved it. Very nice thank you very much. A nice little listen.

Teeth - what a pain...

We're now on the 3rd day of Ellen growing teeth. Number 5 & 6 have decided to grow at the same time and they are now just cutting through the gum. Ellen is pretty much inconsolable. Constant moaning and crying, and every 30 seconds or so she gives out this super-highpitched scream. My eardrums are suffering. I took her to the supermarket to get some food, she likes sitting in the trolley chewing on my groceries. The highpitched screams didn't stop, she made people jump with fright. Quite funny actually, as it just comes from nowhere and is sooo loud.

The ball we were supposed to go to tomorrow, with Sarah & Barney, isn't happening for us now. Have been up from about 5-6am three mornings in a row now and Ellen hasn't gone down easily in the evenings either. Its been 9 o'clock most evenings and after that we've pretty much collapsed in the sofa and then gone to bed. Managed to go to BodyCombat Wednesday though which was great fun.
Really fancied dressing up for the ball, getting drunk and partying all night. Instead, I will be partying with Mr Calpol (Swe: Alvedon typ) and Mrs Teething Gel...

Thank god its Friday though. Tonight its me, Steve, Baileys, a film and nighty night from us.

Ho-Ho-Honda!

AH! I have got a new car! Upgraded my old Jeep to a 2005 Honda CR-V, beautiful light silvery-blue colour with aaaaah so many nice features. A little cooling compartment on the dashboard, air-con (that works...unlike the Jeep), arm rests, big mirrors and great visibility. The only things that's maybe a "downgrade" is the boot-space. I like to get the two dogs and the pram in the boot but not sure I can fit them all in now. Gotta be dogs or pram...or shove the pram in the backseat I guess. We'll find a way!

Back to manual after being automatic for a few years, and my gosh it goes! Just thought about pressing the accelerator down and whooosh I was in Kent!
Really like it, its slightly smaller than the Jeep and a bit more girly I guess.

Here are some pics. (not the actual one as its raining outside and I am not venturing out just to get some soggy photos...)

Mr & Mrs

So...Sarah finally got her Barney as her lawful wedded husband and oooooh what a lovely wedding day it was. Gorgeous bride and everything was wonderful. Thought I'd just share some photos with you all.
Haven't got time to write captions at this moment, but I will hopefully get round to that later on. Enjoy.

Garden then and now

This is our garden being prepared for grass-seeding...











































And here is the finished result...well no grass yet

Get down!

Well well well, don't ever tell me I live a boring life. Last night I went for a walk with the dogs and little Ellen in our garden, well field... I sat down at the top of the field and enjoyed the warm air while the dogs played in the long grass. Suddenly the dogs went absolutely nuts and ran past me barking like nutters. A bloke was walking towards me and when he saw the dogs charging towards him he suddenly stopped and looked rather worried. I held the dogs back and he told me the main road was cordoned off. He said he had parked his car on the other side of the park cause he couldn't get through to his house, due to the police and fire brigade was there cause there was a guy sitting on one of the pylons. So he'd decided to take a short-cut through our garden (the bastard). We could just about see the guy on the pylon in the distance, sitting high up on the electricity pylon and dangling his legs, while holding his head in his hands. He looked like he was about to jump. From the road some of the passers by shouted "encouraging" things to the poor bloke:
-Get down you prick! (I am sure that would make you feel better...)
The power had to be cut to make it safe for him and the rescue-workers who were about to get him down. After about 20 minutes they got a high ladder up to him and got him down.

Girls and motors

Good afternoon,

Just been to MOT my car (swedish equivalent of an "besiktning" I guess) and I always feel so stupid and alien as soon as I come into a garage.

The men ask me questions I have no idea what they mean and I just look completely confused.
We ended the conversation with:
- All done for you
- Great, thank you
- It's an oily dog though underneath...
- Oh...is it...?
- Yes, doesn't it leave your driveway oily?
- Ehm...nooo, not that I have noticed. Why is it oily? (stupid stupid girl, don't ask questions...)
- Well its a C series isn't it?
- Ehm...
- A diesel...
- Yes!
- Well we've had a few of these and theres a indent in the CTC filter.
- ...right...
- So you might just wanna keep an eye on that
- ...of course (where the fuck is my CTC filter?)
- Just keep an eye out for the oil levels...
- ...ok...


And then the two guys started gasbagging between the two of them about C-series and oily things and motor stuff...basically...and I really felt like they were talking a different language. Didn't get a word. Ellen looked as puzzled as me, but I think she was just tired from all the engine noises and smoke.

So relieved when they handed back my keys and I could drive off to my safe home, safe from gearboxes and grease.

Sweden and Snot

Just got back from my trip over to Oxelosund. Had a lovely time, thank you very much. Me and Ellen packed our bags and headed over to Sweden on Friday last week and spent the weekend relaxing, eating lovely food and going on little excursions to Stockholm. Very nice. I must have caught some nasty little bugs on the plane there though, as the last day there I felt like my throat was on fire and knew there was a cold coming.

So here I am, flued up to the ears and poor little Elle is sniffling too. I should probably be added to the Guinness Book of Records for sneezing the most times in a row.

Seeing a Chiropractor tomorrow as my right arm is all buzzing now and I am still dizzy on and off.

Gotta go, Ellen's crying.

My beautiful sister...

Was chatting to my sister on MSN the other day. She'd got a new webcam and we were chatting away with our videos showing. I suddently appeared to be chatting to a "shark" in the according to the video. Sara was trying out some new filters that apparently came with the webcam. Below are the results...I must just point out...Sara is a super-beautiful young woman and how she managed to get this incredibly ugly, well my god those filters really must be good.

Amor has struck again. I thought he should be aiming for the heart though?


Would you let this person in if she looked through your keyhole?


Frankensteins Bride:


The next queen?


If only the Terminator could look this cosy in all the films...look at that smile...!


I think its Vincent Van Gogh

Hens and no chickens

Sarah survived her hen-weekend, and we all had a great time. We started the evening with some drinks, snacks and an Ann Summers party. The girl hosting it was pretty rubbish, but we had a great time anyway. The host was trying to be funny, but I think we were laughing at her rather than with her. Highlights there was Mandy trying to use a rampant rabbit to change the channel on the tele, Bev winning all the games because she quite frankly was excellently rude!, and playing the Alphabet game (where you had to shout out dirty and filthy words on the letter shown by the host) and Barneys mum shouted "LITTER" on the letter L... (well its dirty, isn't it! she defended herself!) I on the other hand, spotted the letter H and blasted out: HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE...yes, spelled with an H, as we do in Sweden...I didn't win that card...I won Dildo, Underwear and Masturbation...?! Bev on the other hand won with 12 cards or something...

After that we had gorgeous food cooked by one of Sarah's friends, who works as a caterer. Handy that! She made the most delicious pizzas I've ever tasted.

Then in came the stripper, dressed up as a work-man (hard hat and the whole shabang). A man with a sixpack and a supertrim body would normally be a real turn-on eh, but ooooh noo, not this one...He was a 5 foot orange midget! Haha. No, not quite but he was a short man with some kind of orange faketan. Sarah looked more than shocked and disgusted having him bumping and grinding all over her and throwing her down on the floor and wiggling his bits all over her. Poor thing, but she survived although I do think she might suffer from Poststripper Depression or Chock or something.
Anyway, we've got pictures but hmmm not sure they should be posted on here. Will send to those of you who fancy seeing some of them... request only...

So after that we all had to have a stiff drink and bang our heads against the wall to remove the image of the dwarf from our minds.
Seriously good night anyway.

Below: One of the dwarf's victims...