Thursday 8 October 2009

All motorway-ed out!

I haven't posted for a couple of days because I've spent them on the British motorway system!

Me and Emily went to see Kelly's dress fitting on Tuesday in Buckingham - and gorgeous she looked too...had to control the tears which were welling up as I didn't want to embarrass anyone!

From there we went up to the University of Central Lancashire in Preston which is one of the best places to learn journalism in the UK - met up with Chelsea, my second cousin, who is up there studying and she was great - told Emily all about life in Preston as a student.

We visited the uni the following day and spent an hour with the course leader who was great and very down to earth. We were a bit disappointed with their facililties though - not a Mac in sight! :-(

Sadly it looks like Emily won't be able to get the A level grades to get in there, although Sunderland is still top of her list anyway.

I thought looking for secondary schools was tough....looking for a uni and travelling up and down the British Isles really takes the biscuit!

We've been pushing Mick's wedding photography this week...I designed an advert that is going in a glossy magazine and I've also managed to convince another magazine to let me write a piece on wedding photography in return for plugging Mick's business. All good stuff. We've had four wedding enquiries this week, just from word of mouth that we're doing weddings now. If this takes off it'll be great.

I'm looking at expanding my business in a slightly different direction as well - to provide publicity training for schools. I'm in talks with KCC about this.

Kids are all fine and dandy...had a note from George's teacher today saying he's settled in well. He's so happy; like a different kid.

And I'm still doing the Jamie Oliver cooking thing - had fish pie tonight made with haddock, salmon and prawns, with grated carrot, cheese and celery plus chilli, topped with mashed potato - fantastic...so many flavours!

Glad it's Friday tomorrow...planning to chill out for the evening tomorrow in preparation for another weekend of ice hockey - George is playing at home in a tournament, Elliot's off to Oxford.

Monday 5 October 2009

A rainy day at the desk

It feels like autumn today...the first day of rain in a long while and it's grey and miserable - but rather welcome too! It was like meeting up with an old friend this morning when I put on tights, a jumper and slippers!
I've noticed Mick has put the heating on despite our conversation yesterday about trying not to use it in the daytime! But it is a bit cold and damp.
Kids all went off to school this morning but we had a worrying phonecall mid morning:
"Hello, this is Hempstead Junior School. We're just ringing to check George is OK since he didn't come to school this morning." Gulp! Mad panic set in.
"But we dropped him off and watched him walk up the ramp to his classroom."

Turns out he was a bit late and didn't know he had to sign in at the office - so they'd marked him absent but he was safe and sound in the classroom! Phew!

I've been busy beavering away with work all day so far although feel in need of a break right now and a refuel...am working on a public consultation for the NHS. I need to get quite a lot done today as I'm not around for the next couple of days - off to see Kelly's wedding dress fitting tomorrow and then up to Preston for Wednesday to visit a uni with Emily. Girly days galore!
No doubt it'll be even colder and wetter 'oop north' so I might break out my boots!

Sunday 4 October 2009

A bright sunny autumn day

It may be bright and sunny today, and my favourite time of the year, but most of today will be taken up with tidying, cleaning, cooking, helping kids with homework, and washing and ironing. Sigh!
No ice hockey today, which is a miracle in itself, although I suspect George and Elliot will want to go and see the Mustangs play later.
We've got some great pictures of George's first couple of games which I'll hopefully get around to posting on here later.
I'd like to think at least some of us will get up in the woods with the dogs today and enjoy the carpet of autumn leaves which is starting to fall.
I'm also planning to cook a beef stew with dumplings, care of Jamie Oliver, and do some planning for my business.
Is it a sign of the 21st century that I'm setting up a blog so my extended family can see what this branch of the family is doing? Or just plain sad?
Either way, families aren't what they used to be - close-knit pillars of support.
Before phones/emails/blogs, families would either live together, close to one another or they would write to one another and visit.
Now communication is so easy, yet so difficult too. There are so many ways to communicate, surely there must be a channel for everyone?
Many families are disparate, yet make the effort to stay together, to support one another, to interact and to understand.
I suspect there are some members of my family who do care about what me, my husband and kids do, think, feel, even though they don't communicate with us much.
This blog is for those people.
I'd like to think they will use this blog to interact with me, or my children. If they don't, at least I can rest assured that I am making the effort to communicate with them, albeit in a rather strange, detached way.