Time moves on........................

Hope you like my jumble sale doggy, he is so lovely but do I rehome him??

This is my gorgeous niece on her wedding at the end of July - the weather was perfect

This is my auction house buy - he is wonderful too.

Well here I am in August last post was May so not the most frequent blogger on the block!

The pictures above are of my two dogs purchased earlier this year, the big one was from the local auction and the little one from the jumble sale I help out at once a year. They were taken out and washed with shampoo and then showered and allowed to dry naturally in the sunshine we had in about May this year, they came up so well and I live them to bits!

I am still working and it doesn't look like I will be able to leave as planned. My job was officially deleted from the County Council a couple of weeks ago. My line manager and I had to go for the higher job that was available or we would not have been eligible for redundancy. Anyway Norma got it which is right because she is a higher grade than me and I am pleased for her, she has also sold her house and got rid of her mortgage, which is a triumph these days. The job has still not been graded through job evaluation so it may not even turn out to be a higher job.... the joys of local government.

Anyway the next news is that one of the women whose job was saved ( the same job/salary as I do but on a fixed term contract) requested voluntary redundancy because of the imminent stress that the job would cause her due to the restructure - lo and behold she was granted it. Now this job is one that was carried out by two full time people with two people helping out a claims times, it is now a post for one person only. I have to go for the job as I am doing it now and again would forfeit any redundancy if I did not. They then decided to let her go early (today) and left me doing the job on my own. They would not advertsie her job until she had gone and I am not 'ring fenced' for it as it was not part of the unit's restructure! So it will be advertised next week when they get around to it - in the meantime they are not bothered because I am sat here doing it. I hope you are keeping up ......................

I have to go for jobs as they will not let you get redundnancy if you don't - my date for leaving is 27th October. I have decided that rather than take a job I don't want or don't know anything about that I am better to go for the 'devil you know', so I will apply for it when it goes on the bulletin. I equally cannot assume that I will get the job because our boss has not been successful when she applied for her own job nor the one underneath. We do not know why, but we do know that her face obviously doesn't fit - she is fantastic at her job and has so much knowledge that if she goes we will struggle to carry out the funding programmes without her.

So, if this job (if I get it!) is the one for me then I have a contract until December 2013 and hopefully by then I may get redundancy as Alan will be 67. It has been a long summer we have all been working so very hard with no time for holidays from work, I had this week booked off but had to cancel it due to workload. I may get a week in mid September after all the claims are done.

It has been strange weather up here in the North and the garden has been scorched and then battered, water logged and burnt, good old Blighty eh, never lets you down when it comes to unpredictability.


Alan is enjoying his retirement ie he is not doing anything! We were notified of an old pension from a job he was made redundant from and it was a lovely surprise, it isn't a fortune but we were able to take a lump sum, so he did and he is now the owner of a Mini Cooper S!!! Is this a mid to late life crisis I ask?? It is lovely and more comfortable than I expected, he started with a mini van in the 60's and now he is back in one, though this is a much improved version. Needless to say as I am still working we will hang on to my Fiesta - which has a sensible boot and will allow us to do our Fairs.

What a ramble that was - we have had our Niece's wedding which was wonderful. The day was perfect in every way and we could do it all again.

The picture of my niece Louise with my brother and his wife, looking beautiful and a radiant bride- has to stay there as I can never position these bloomin' photos on the blog. She has been making stuff for her day for months now, including 70 metres of double sided bunting, little pot tealights with doily patterns imprinted on them, all her invitations, and favours. She also made and hand printed all of the orders of service which were lovely and a perfect keepsake. The service was in her local church and was perfect, then back to her new husband's farm where there was a beautiful marquee and a small band playing, the sun was shining and everything was lovely and vert English. There was a converted piggery (beautiful) with doily bunting and fairy lights leading to the marquee, she had tables laid out with vintage crockery and cakes and little eats as well as a table with old jars and inside were old fashioned sweets and an old typewriter for you to type your good wishes on home made cards for her to keep from the day, this girl must have been making this delightful stuff for months and months. There was even a corner with little tables and colouring books and puzzles for the little ones.

Everyting had been so carefully planned and

The food was superb, the venue was stunning and we had the most perfect day...........even down to the vintage cups and saucers for the tea and wedding cake at the end to the vintage tablecloths adorning every table - vintage bliss.................................

I am off today, Friday - we are sitting here with the heating on low getting snuggly and now I am going to pick up my good murder and snuggle in.

Weekend Working..............

Busy days ahead over the weekend here in bay window land. Richard who is our favourite chap (he does loads of things for us that Alan doesnt know how to and Alan assists and learns at the same time) is coming to widen our loft hatch on the landing, fit a very clever ladder we have bought off QVC and then hopefully Alan will supervise our two sons putting flooring down in the loft. I am so excited because then we can get some boxes up there out of the way at last. I would love to be able to sit in the wonderfully sunny conservatory we have without having to wedge a chair in between boxes and spare furniture.



The back room that we are currently decorating has taken a bit of a turn for the worse ie the decarting has ground to a halt. We have an extension (it added about 6' to the room) and the ceiling is awful you can see the tape on the plaster board and its also where the flat roof leaked so there is a nasty stain. It is artexed which I hate but only very slightly so we are having the whole room ceiling skimmed over the weekend. He is coming tonight to do the first stage and then Sat or Sun to do the rest of it. Then we can get on. The fireplace almost fell over when we removed the fire surround so Alan had had to make brackets to fasten it against the wall. The surround we have from my brother is lovely but the opening is a bit bigger than the fireplace so we are busy modifying it with black painted wood! It will look good - honestly! Alan also blacked the fireplace last night - it looks very good. We are getting there. It will be so nice to get the paper on at last I have always coveted the 'Percy' paper from and it should be an improvement on the room hopefully making it lighter as it is prone to being a little dark.



Have been trying to source some wall lights and a centre light fitting that we both like and can afford some of them are astronomic. So any pointers to websites or shops with good selections would be gratefully received. We prefer double wall lights and I wanted a triple centre fitting we also need four sets of wall lights hence the bargains needed.



I have written to the local council this week to ask if they have any record of our foundations being dug deeper than required for the garage then we can start investigating the cost of it all.
We are now trying to distribute all the things that we got together and Kate bought for when she was moving out. She is still looking for a house share with girls as she says she is ready to move out anyway. Hence I now have a new microwave because I bought her one! mind you mine was a bit dodgy and had a hole on the top side where I melted it by leaving a hot lamp next to it after a power cut!!

My gorgeous blue delphiniums were snapped in two by the viciuos wind we had - I was sooo cross. Am also cross with myself for deleting all the before photos of the garden. Anyway we got some more lettuce, carrots and beetroot planted this week.

Other big news here is that my son Adam and his fiancee have booked their wedding for next August. They have been very sensible and booked it all in a lovely local hostelry and we are having the ceremony there as well. It has a lovely riverside garden and they prefer to do small 'do's'. There are ex-parents to invite etc etc but they are determined to make it 20 close family for a wedding lunch (its a Friday) and then a do at a cricket club on the Saturday evening for the rest of the family and friends. So my frock won't need to be posh! and Vicky wants a really noce dress but not a wedding dress. They have both said they don't believe in spending loads of money on one day - it well be better spent on a wedding as they want to move to a whole house (ie not the quarter sized one they have now) as soon as they can.

Right must go and get on - but first be warned I had to give in with Supanet and pay them £103.91 to get out of the contract. Please, please be warned about these Internet Service Providers and read the very very small print - they have you every way you turn. In the end I just gave in and paid as I was starting to lose sleep over it. I would thoroughly recommend 02 we were up and running in one week which is fantastic.

See you all later, hope you all have a good weekend, in order to keep out of the workmens way I have offered to check out the charities and the Laura Ashley sale - now aren't I kind!!