Have you seen the trailer for the new Narnia film? See It Here. It looks great. I have to admit I only ever knew the story of "The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe" so I have no idea what will happen in this new one. Will it make me want to sit in the back of wardrobes wishing myself into another world?

It's Valentines Day soon. I'm trying to think of a cute present for Ray. It can't cost too much - we are on a tight budget - but has to be something he'll adore. I was thinking of topping up his Red Dwarf collection. No, doesn't sound very romantic but if you knew how much he's watched the other DVD's I got him you'd understand that it would be a present he'd cherish. The only problem is I can't find the one he needs on sale anywhere. So I'm wondering what kind of sappy present can I get a guy? It's easy for him - he can get me flowers and he'll know I'll be extremely impressed (I love getting flowers). But what can I get him?

We're off spending money we can't afford tomorrow. It's our last gig for a long while. The tickets were bought before we'd found the house. We're seeing Coheed & Cambria, with Fightstar supporting. It'll be good but also expensive. I hate being on a budget hehe.

There's some trouble with the estate agent who's renting us the house. Luckily we've been in contact with the landlord seperately because of a toilet malfunction (note to all potential landlord: do not fit Saniflo systems cos when they break your tenents will have no toilet, bath, shower or water of any kind in the bathroom). He called last night to ask if we'd had any confirmation letters from the agent because he hadn't heard anything from them. He wasn't even told we'd moved in 'til a week after! He's worried the agent has pocketed our money. So we trundled down to see the agent last night and asked for photocopies and receipts and he gave them to us happily enough. Couldn't really argue, could he? The landlord has told us if the agent doesn't show him some proof - and money - by the time the rent's due (which is next week) he's going to get us to cancel our direct debit mandate and we'll sign a new deal directly with him. Phew! What a mess! But the landlord is a nice guy and he's assured us we're perfectly safe, he isn't going to kick us out, and we won't lose out on any money; he says the person who'll be out of pocket will be him. He'd just wanted to warn us that things weren't going well with the agent.

Why do these things always happen to me?

Labels: coheed and cambria, estate agent, fightstar, films, gigs, house stuff, landlord, presents, ray, renting, valentines day

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

I am offically back online!

The day I got back from dog-sitting the router was waiting to be installed. It didn't all go smoothly. I ended up having to ring the tech guys up but it was all sorted out pretty quickly. So I'll be posting as normal again now :)

First, let me show you round my house. I adore it. Seriously. From the first moment I walked in it was home. That never happens to me - ever. I usually take a while to settle in to a new place and always suffer from home-sickness. But I've been fine.

So, the tour. Let's start in the living-room. It's one big main room but because it used to be two (the owner knocked the adjoining wall down to make it one large room) you can easily split the room in two. So the "main" part, where we all sit together looks like this:



The back half of that room isn't anywhere near complete yet. We need a couple of book-cases so that we can unpack all of our many hundreds of books (I have decided I have way too many books) and DVD's. At the moment it looks like this:



Then it's down the back of the house to my lovely big kitchen:



And the last room downstairs is the back-room, where the dogs sleep at night and where our dining-table and stereo are; plus it gives a nice view of the back garden:



Outside. This is what you see when you first step outside, some nice decking, which in the summer is gonna be great for BBQ's:



Then round the corner is the other part of the garden, where we intend on growing our plants and veg. (That's the back half of the living-room you can see through the window at the far end.)



Pretty, huh? I love my house hehe :)

Everything's going really well. All the budget's are holding up well, we haven't gone bankrupt, or hungry, so I think it's been a success. And, when I took Sweepie's home to my parents' house, she couldn't wait to get back here. So that makes me love the place even more!

Labels: house stuff, moving out, photos, sweepie

by Ys | COMMENTS? 4 | permalink |

I'm not officially back online yet, but I'm dog-sitting and he has internet access so I'm taking advantage to make an entry here and finally check out everyone's blogs. I've got heaps of catching up to do so expect a lot of comments throughout the day ;)

The move went really well. We were all exhausted on the Saturday night that we moved. I never ever want to go through that day again; except maybe the part where I was so excited I spent twenty minutes jumping up and down in various places in the house. We didn't have a fridge-freezer or a sofa for the first week, which was hard, but once they were both bought everything fell into place. In fact everything's been perfect ever since the first day. I love the house, I love being so close to the beach; I love my room, I love living with Ray; Sweepie's having a great time, Martha has settled in really quickly. Even the bills, although a little scary, are fun to manage. The scariest part was receiving a £200 council tax bill one week into our stay!

Last weekend I had to say goodbye to Dolores. There were many tears. But she's having a great time with her owners so that's made it a lot easier. We're not having anymore pups for a few years. We've had some bad experiences with the people the pups have been sold to, plus everyone's Pug mad at the moment so they're all trying to make a quick buck by buying a female pup and breeding from them. It's not nice. So we're not breeding again. Maybe never. I think it's the right decision. We only ever did it because we love having babies. It's a shame it went sour.

Right, I'm off to read all the blogs I can now! I hope everyone is well. I should have internet connection in the house within the next week so the entries will soon be back to normal. And, of course, I'll get a heap of pictures together of the new house ;)

EDIT two hours later and I've finally read every single post I've missed! Don't blog too much between now and when I get my connection sorted, okay? ;)

Labels: bills, blogging, martha, moving out, puppies, ray, sweepie

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

I should be back online within a week, depending on how long it takes to set up the phone and internet. I'll miss everyone :/

Labels: blogging, moving out

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

Yes, I am still alive. I know: I disappeared for a while there. That wasn't the plan, I assure you. Yes, I wanted to spend as much time with my family as I could (which I did), but I didn't think I'd be offline for so long.

Christmas was great. I felt very spoilt :) My favourite present had to be my signed Jason Donovan book. If anyone says they got a better present than that... well, I'll call you a liar ;) I've eaten heaps and laughed a lot, and just had a great time.

That was until Decemeber 28th. That day I started feeling ill; I thought it was just a mild cold cos I'd been fighting one off for a few days. That night my temperature went through the roof and pretty much stayed there for over forty-eight hours. I have no idea what was wrong; I just know it knocked me for six. I could barely stand. Ray was literally lifting me in and out of the bed/sofa. It was a really rough few days and I'm still finding my energy levels are really low now. Hence why I've been AWOL for so long.

Of course this has all come at an awful time cos I'm moving on Saturday! So today I started my packing. Tomorrow I have to complete it, cos Friday I'm going out to the rugby in Cardiff with Jemma and Daddy. So it's all one mad rush to get everything done when all I really want to do is curl up in a nice safe, warm, sleepy ball and watch some Disney DVD's.

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and New Years. What with being ill New Years was a bit of a washout for me but I don't like New Years anyway so I didn't mind. I got to spend it with Ray and that was enough for me.

I should be back online checking on everyones blogs/journals in the next twenty-four hours and then I might be AWOL again for a week or so as I set up my internet connection. I'll be sure to check in before I move, though, to let you know :)

PS Thanks to everyone who's donated stuff to us for our move. Seriously, everyone's been great - I feel very blessed :)

Labels: christmas, family, illness, jason donovan, moving out, new years, presents, ray

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |