Friday, February 23, 2024

 Definitely had post holiday blues this week. Realised as well I've actually spent a bit more on credit cards than I'd want considering i'm supposed to be paying them all off and its still a long way till Sept '25 and being debt free! So maybe a few cheap weeks are needed!

Which is depressing as I've got the flyball champs that we've qualified for to try and pay, the car and house all need work as well!

Had a couple of little bombshells this week too. L up in Hull messaged to say he's been diagnosed with cancer although he's sounding hopeful that they've caught it super early and it'll all be good.

And G - the link between me and J is packing it all in to move to Thailand where's he's met some girl. I mean he travels there a lot so its always been in my head that perhaps one day he would go over there to work but yeah. Apparently this is how we roll now. 

Monday, February 19, 2024

 I'm back from Edinburgh!

I wanted to surprise J for his birthday and he'd never been, I hadn't been since possibly 2008 and its such a lovely, quirky city, all higgledy, piggledy and OLD!

So I booked up flights, hotels, a sneaky trip over to Glasgow - first time in Glasgow, been to better Scottish cities although TBF we were just around the train station - and reserved a couple of tables in cool bars and arranged to see TP and TJ as they have moved back up.

The trip was a success! It was such a fun slow burn, letting him guess we were driving to the airport, to take him to the departure board and get him to guess and then tell him what was the plan.

Work hadn't approved my Friday/Monday leave at all so it was a bit of a gamble if I could get away with it but luckily I did!

So Friday, I worked in until about 10.30ish and then we went for an explore and to get our bearings and then went to the castle to explore and then found Edinburgh's smallest bar, Tom Riddell's grave, the Greyfriar's Bobby memorial, back to the hotel for a quick rest and then out to a Frankenstein themed bar in an old church where we tried haggis loaded fries and watched an animatronic Frankenstein slowly lower from the ceiling, "wake up and look around" before lying down and going back up.

We went to another bar where I drank/ate alcoholic ice creams before a nightcap at the hotel.

Saturday we went to Glasgow, found a cool bar with alcoholic milkshakes, went to Celtic Park - in my opinion watching 1st vs 4th, it was more mid-table Championship standard rather than them claiming they'd be competitive in the Premiership.

Back to Edinburgh, a really nice meal in a supposedly alpine themed bar (it didn't seem that way) and another hotel nightcap.

Sunday We had a lie in, breakfast under the castle's walls and then met TP &TJ where we went to Mary Kings Close, an underground street, and then walked to find a giant marshmallow shop for a hot chocolate.

They said goodbye and we played in the hotel pool and sauna for a bit before going out for another meal and then it was a super early flight so I could be logged on as soon as possible - I can't believe that I got away with it!!

It was a lovely trip with good weather for Scotland in Feb, a lovely catch-up with the Twins and nice to just hang out with neither of us feeling the need to rush about to go to work or do dog things or any of the other commitments that we have.   


Monday, January 15, 2024

 Such a full on few days!

The snooker was actually more exciting than I thought it'd be, although it helped that apparently they were two attacking players.

It'd be nice to see Ally Pally in the daylight too I thought, it looks like there's a lovely view from the park and i'm not sure how much of the inside you can see.

It was a late one, not home until midnight though. It was also a bit annoying as my car battery has died with this cold snap despite only being a year old and having a 4 year warranty so i'll have to see if I can get it refunded despite not being able to track down the reciept!

I met up with J again on Friday and we went to a immersive balloon exhibit but it was a bit more just looking rather than interacting so I deffo preferred the bubble thing we all did before Xmas.

He came to mine after and I showed him how to change the car battery and tbh it's nice to have that extra pair of hands to do it as it's such a bloody faffy job!

A lovely lazy Saturday morning hanging out in bed before I took him home and then prepped for the flyball comp on Sunday. First one of the year and the dogs mostly behaved well.

It's been a nice little start to the year, its supposedly Blue Monday but there's still so much to look forward to coming up soon and this is my first full week back at work so it's been a nice slow ease back into life.

And the days are slowly, slowly getting longer too! Tomorrow being first time sun rises before 8am!

Monday, January 08, 2024

 A very belated round up.

Another milestone of remembering that awful day in the hospice, now 18 years ago and quite scary to think that I could soon have outlived him.

Christmas was ok as it always is, I went to J's families for Christmas eve, and on Christmas day I took the dogs to Dungeness for a run around.

J and I had a year anniversary. I still struggle a little with it sometimes, the change from drinking friends to dating, but I'm happier than I've been in a very long time. He's sweet, gentle and thoughtful and I'm loving all the adventures. Its been so long, just existing and not actually living.

We went to see a fireworks display at Leeds Castle, met up with JA and his GF and went to the Bubble Experience which was brilliant fun.

On Thursday I take him to his Christmas present, which is an evening watching snooker. On Friday we're going to some balloon immersive experience thingy. Then I'm out at the first flyball competition of the year.

I've planned a secret holiday for us to go to Edinburgh for his B'day, booked two fun bars and hoping to get tickets to a Celtic game.

The Brat is back with his GF and talking about how he shouldn't really be paying rent etc here when he's not lived here pretty much all year. 


Friday, October 20, 2023

 OMG! OMG! I met up with STF! Which according to this blog, the last time we saw each other was Sept 2010!

J and I got tickets to go to see England play Italy, he'd never been to an England game and after Porto, I was on various priority lists so I applied and we got lucky!

Wasn't the plan at all but he messaged me randomly when I was on the tube on the way up and Yay!

I do think of those boys often, how they saved my sanity when everything was spiraling and so, so bad that last term of uni and I miss them.

England won too! 3-1 which made the very long day well worth it, I and J, JA and J's brother have applied for tickets for the Euro 2024 quarter finals so fingers crossed that we get them and also at least one of them is an England game!

What else is new? Work have now decided I need to go in 3 days a week and start at 8.30, which isn't great because its a very long time to leave the dogs and everyone else gets to stay with the two days.

But on other hand I'll be finishing now at 3.30 on Fridays so there's that at least.

I went to a Flyball friend's wedding end of September and had a great time dancing and drinking.

I've been given hearing aids to make up for covid having stolen my hearing, they're horrible, ugly and I hate them but wear them like a good girl! 

I recently worked my way through the extended LOTR films on at the cinema, one each week. Mother is back in November, The Brat is spending about half the week here and half at his GF's and life cruises on much as it has done but it has really been the absolute best year i've had in a very, very long time!



Monday, September 11, 2023

 So here we are! Well into September now and coming to the end of a late summer heatwave.

Things are still good with me and J, I'm still not sure who does and doesn't know about us but my work Bestie E apparently got quite drunk at the ball pit and decided to take matters into her own hands and told various people, although mostly I think people that already knew.

My wallet and keys were found at the ball pit which was exciting!

J and I have carried on having a few adventures, we went to Deal and ran around a giant inflatable obstable course which proved we were both very unfit!

And this weekend has been awful temperature wise with it being in the 30's, I melted at home Saturday but by the evening I was getting restless and I can't bear the thought of doing nothing at weekends so I impulsively messaged him to see if he fancied going down to the coast (along with the whole of SE London it seemed!)

So we had a lovely day at Joss Bay near Broadstairs and later went over to Margate and played in the arcades, had chips and a HUGE ice cream.

Getting home was a bit of a ballache as everyone was going at same time, so a 1 hour 15 journey took nearly 3 hours and ruined the plan of sorting dogs out, having a quick bath and then going back to his but hopefully there will be Tuesday evening instead.



Monday, August 21, 2023

 Guys - I don't want to alarm anyone, but I'm now 40 - like when I started this blog back when dinosaurs still walked the Earth I was in my late teens. This actual blog has existed for 19 years. 

And I want to tell you about how depressed I was about making it to 40. But I have had about the best week possible so i'm gonna tell you about that instead!

So - it all kicked off on Friday 11th when N who has finally aged into being the grumpy, tired, old fat man he's always been decided he couldn't make my actual party but was going to take me to the cricket instead.

Nearest i've got to live Cricket before was Welshy's park team, so I was super excited to be seeing Surrey play Kent at the Oval as well.

And we drank 4 bottles of wine between us and actually got to walk on the pitch at Lunch and have a quick look in the museum.

Surrey won and it was a glorious day out getting wine-drunk and bitching and having a good catch up. I love him.

My Flyball club got together on Sunday 13th and had a little party for me and a collection that I opened on Monday which was lovely of them.

Monday - the Big Day - I didn't do much, the Car needed MOT-ing and I really wanted that out of the way in case I needed to stress about work needing doing, but the good thing got itself through with only a slow puncture to worry about.

The Brat actually remembered and bought me a TV - Mother sent me some goodies and money and J bless him sent me flowers.

Tuesday he was off and took me for a surprise day out. We went to Brunch in Holborn and ate pancakes that were bigger than my car tyre! An Escape Room and then a bar that did social darts of different types and it was such a lovely day, he took me to Giant Waterstones and insisted I chose a book that he could buy me as a present  - read Mexican Gothic if you haven't! - We came back to his and watched the Charlton game, not so lovely!

Wednesday I decided I'd do some sightseeing of the things I've always fancied doing but never got round too before, so I drove down to Hampshire and had again a lovely day out at a bird park and then visiting Jane Austen's House. I drive past maybe once or twice a year going to dog things and always wanted to stop and look around at both.

Thursday I just hung out with the dogs.

Friday - OMG let me tell you about Friday - This was going to be the absolute Pinnacle of my adventure, there is a club in Shoreditch that is also a giant adult's ball pit with all the colours, all the balls and cocktails.

Somehow I scraped together 15 friends from my days at the NMM - Lovely L came down on a whistlestop 24 hour adventure from Hull! - J, his brother and R, JA and G my football boys and girls from flyball and my work bestie and her husband.

It was absolutely amazing, I laughed, danced and drank my way through the night and lost nearly everything I own in the world, wallet, phone, keys. It doesnt matter, that stuff is a ballache but I had fun and took the very zen approach of "I can't do owt about it, why let it spoil my night"

So of course this weekend has been an attempt to try and re-organise and replace my possessions that I lost through being a careless idiot. 

I do have one nagging issue - the vague plan was that J and I would stop being Secret Squirrel and come out to all our mutuals on Friday, but it never happened and as fun as the last 8 months have been having that secret, its now well past the sell by date and I want to go public so to speak and because I'm a neurotic fool, its now playing in my head a little that, there's ulterior motives behind him keeping quiet. That he's like E.2.0 holding out/still pining after his ex. That he's another FWB who thought I wasn't socially acceptable enough to ever date properly.

I need to tell him this next time I see him and, I don't know - find out the best way to open up and open up ASAP