Last night we took Little Red for his final drive. He's been an outstandingly good little car. Yes, he's small and he may not go as fast as some of the others out there, but he was just one of those cars that just had a funny little character. He survived years of hardwork with Ray's boss (he used to deliver kitchens in that car!!!), and then finally came into retirement with Ray. Not really much of a retirement, though, considering all the trips to Cardiff and back, the big bump, the moving house, and all the back and forth to work and relatives houses.

As I said in the previous post, he may have looked good on the outside (no rust whatsoever), on the inside he was dying. So we let him go.



Little Red now resides in the Show Room in the Sky.

But we still needed a car. So after much-searching, Ray fell in love with a silver Vauxhall Corsa. She (yes, she's a she) is small and compact but still much bigger than Little Red. She's also a diesel, which makes Ray love her almost as much as he loves me.



She doesn't have a name yet. But she is the new addition to our family. So we went from white car to red car, finally to silver car - and this little lady has five doors. Do you know how long I had to nag at Ray to get him to buy another car with five doors? Is it a boy-thing to want a car with only three?

Anyway, welcome into the family Little Miss. I hope you'll tell us your name soon. Ooh isn't she pretty and shiny?

Labels: car, photos, ray

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

The money didn't show up but the period did. So Ray has long hair but isn't going to become a father so that all worked out well.

We had some car news this weekend. Little Red went in for a pre-MOT cos he was making some disgustingly alarming groaning noises down by my feet, which sounded an awful lot like the brakes wearing away. Turns out it was the brakes. But not just the brakes. We came home with five pages of faults - twenty-six problems in all. The only good thing we were told was that we had four good tyres. The rest had to be repaired or else scrapped within ten days. The cost to repair was going to be £800. We have no choice. The car has to be scrapped. I'll do An Ode To Little Red in the next post but needless to say, we found a new car (more about that in the next post). £700. Which means we now have very little savings and are in debt to our respective families, who very kindly offered to help out. That means Ray needs weekend work and I need dog-sitting jobs.

Turns out I'm doing better than Ray. I have three jobs lined up in the next month. I've been out of work for the last two months, and before that I'd been out for about five due to the fact that I was raising the pups at home. So this will be my first proper back-to-work string of jobs in a long time. I'll admit I'm a little anxious about it but only because I think someone's going to break into the house and rape me. So far that hasn't happened so I'll continue to stress myself out about it in the belief that if I'm worrying about it it won't happen. So I have about £50 to put towards the repayments (the rest has to go into the bank cos I am low on funds) so far. I'm hoping the run of work continues (for both of us) because to repay our debt we're having to live on no spare money at all during the coming weeks. Which means we buy food, put diesel in the car, put money aside for the bills and that's it. No drinks down the pub, no long trips out in the car, no treats in the clothes shops, no much-needed armchair in the living-room. We think we'll have to live like this for the next six to eight weeks.

So who's going to crack first? Me? Or everyone else who has to be put with my whining about boredom and my hatred of money and how much it makes everything suck and how badly I just want to look at some sale items and please can I have it please?

Saying all that, it's a super cute car and well worth the money. We had a great deal on it. And we think it's a girl. She/he is coming home with us tonight. Ray's so excited he could barely sleep last night. He won't be so excited a few weeks in and he says "Can I just get this...?" And I say, "No. You got that bloody car. Live with it." Hehehe.

Labels: car, house stuff, life, money, ray

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

The day didn't start well. Ten pound missing from the Shopping Money Pot on the kitchen unit. I searched the pot, tipped all the contents out, quizzed Jem to make sure she definitely put it in there and not somewhere safe - you know that Safe Place we all have where things always end up getting lost forever. But she was adamant the tenner had been put in the pot.

There's another pot by the Shopping Pot, this one is called the Dog Biscuit Pot cos it holds, yes, the dog biscuits. Ray brought a ten pound tip home last night for Outstanding Tiling and Grouting (I'm so proud of my man) and I put that ten pound in the Dog Biscuit Pot, sticking up so I'd know where it was, so I knew not to out it somewhere safe. It was to be Ray's Getting His Hair Cut Money.

So I took a guess that maybe Ray had got the tenner's mixed up, put the Shopping Money tenner in his wallet and skipped off to work this morning. So I just took the Ray's Getting His Hair Cut tenner into town to finish off the shopping. I texted him to make sure, all the while cursing him lovingly for his lack of knowledge about different pots meaning different money which belong to different people. Yes, the ten pounds look the same but they're not - they're not! Nearly at the shop and he texted to say he had not taken the ten pound, that he'd given it to me to keep safe 'til tomorrow (when he gets his hair cut). Don't worry, he said, we'll look for the missing tenner tonight.

Hmm.

Sounds like a plan, I know, but I've searched the kitchen, Jemma's searched the kitchen, and there is no second ten pound note. We fear the dog might have climbed up onto the unit and eaten the Shopping Money note because she's weird and loves the taste of money in her mouth. Which means I've spent the Ray's Getting His Hair Cut money already. Which means there will be no hair cut. Which means his hair will keep on growing thicker and thicker until he ends up with a mullet. Because, yes, we're that skint that we don't have a spare ten pounds - the only reason he could get his hair cut this weekend was cos that money was a tip.

So now I'm thinking I might have to perform surgery on the dog. And while I'm in there I may as well look for my missing period. It's over two hours late. Yes, I know, only hours. But every second counts when you desperately don't want there to be a bun in the oven. Not that there could be anyway, aside from an act of God. Can sperms really get through Pill Defensives and Condom Defensives?

Oh well, there's some good things about today: it's a Friday, which means it's the weekend in about four hours; I'm wearing Ray's belt again which might mean it'll end up tied round other parts of me than my waist again later tonight; my hair has dried in perfect pretty ringlets; it's raining so I don't have to walk the dogs (plus they went for a huge walk last night); it's lunchtime at last so I can eat.

If any one finds ten pounds - it's mine!

Labels: condoms, dogs, hair cut, house stuff, money, ray, sex, shopping, the pill

by Ys | COMMENTS? 4 | permalink |

I had a visit from some Mormons last night. Did you know that their church send young American boys over here to Wales to try to convert people on their doorsteps?

Usually I wouldn't engage with people who knock on my door and try to sell me stuff - be it food, religion, whatever - because if they're invading my personal space then I get a bit defensive. But I'd just put the potatoes in the oven (you know how long they take to bake), Jem was playing Halo 2, I'd just spent the afternoon locked away writing, and, to be honest, it was just nice to have a conversation with someone outside of these four walls. In this area there isn't much of a community spirit. Some of the neighbours will say hello but most don't bother. So these two American Mormon boys arrived at my door, were a little flustered when they discovered I was under the age of sixty(this is an old-person's street) asked me if I believed in God and I just knew I couldn't be nasty to them.

We had a good twenty minute discussion about God and faith, what it means to me, what it means to them. Most of the conversation was good, some of it was just too preachy for my liking. I told them from the offset that I thought religion was a personal journey, that I didn't like to press my views on other people, that I thought the church was corrupt and that organised religion just wasn't my thing. I have a relationship with God, that's a personal thing and I don't need to shout it from the rooftops. But the boys wanted to tell me what God wanted, what he expected us to do. I found it hard not to giggle (and giggle I did, a lot) because there were these two American kids - they could have only been nineteen/twenty, trying to tell me what God thinks. They meant well, they really did, but how could they know at their age what God wants from us?

I cottoned on pretty quick that they were trying to sell the Mormon religion to me. When I told them I didn't think God would bother sending prophets these days I thought they were going to cry. When they asked me if I would believe someone if they told me they were a prophet, I had to answer honestly and said, "No. Because they'd probably be faking it." More upset from their little puppy eyes. One of them tried to catch me out - what if I was back in the day, would I have believed Moses was a prophet or would I have just ignored him? I answered honestly again, "How can I answer that? I'm not back in the day, am I?"

Like I say, they were sweet boys, but boys they were. I think they're used to people closing doors on them or else just nodding politely at what they say. But if you're going to ask me questions about my religion and faith then I'm going to have strong answers cos they're my beliefs. I think they probably went home that night and prayed for my bitter soul.

I don't know how I feel about people selling religion door-to-door. I can see how they justify it to themselves - they're spreading God's word, trying to save a few souls - but religion was forced on me in school and it just made me back the hell away from it - fast. It was only when I was left alone, when I found my own mind, that I "found" God for myself. Since then my religious "journey" has been great. I've thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it. But I don't ask people about their religion, I don't preach about my own beliefs; if someone asks I'll happily have a conversation about it cos I am passionate about it. I just don't think I like people coming round - especially such young kids - telling me what God thinks.

That said, if they came round again I'd probably talk to them some more, simply cos I can't be rude to people (unless they really piss me off). But they didn't convert me. I'm sorry but I just don't believe what they do. I just kept thinking, probably rather inappropriately, that Donny Osmond is a Mormon and he is so cute for an older man. I didn't tell the boys that; I thought they might actually drop down in prayer on my doorstep if I did.

Labels: house stuff, mormons, religion

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

It was my birthday last Thursday. I turned twenty-five. I thought such a number would be frightening but it turns out I feel about that age anyway so it was no big deal whatsoever. In fact, I kept forgetting it was even my birthday!

I was spoilt rotten with presents - seriously! I got heaps of DVD's - at least six, I think - which are all so, so good. I also got some great clothes - jeans (cannot find them anywhere online!), a too pretty top, red skirt and red/white vest-top. My younger sister got me a gorgeous blue lamp for my bedroom, and I added a cute three-drawer unit, the same colour blue, to put in some of the wad of stationary I got for my birthday as well. I got a lot of stationary :)

I have a new project, you see. Instead of making ordinary photo albums to house all my photos, I've decided to make my own. Kind of like scrap books, I suppose. So I've bought in a lot of stationary to get the job done. It's probably going to take the rest of my life to complete but at least I'll have gorgeous photo albums to show for it ;)

I also got a lovely surprise present from a friend of mine - even though I told her no presents! And a big thank you to Gen for the card :) It was a really nice surprise!

So I had a lovely birthday, was spoilt, had a lovely day out shopping, had a gorgeous cake - did I mention I was spoilt? The day ended with a riding-crop, as well. I think I'd like it to be my birthday every day ;)

Check out the funniest pictures ever of someone opening presents HERE (there's other pictures too, of course ;D).

PS Thanks for all the advice on the previous post :) I think I've decided to keep on shipping out the manuscripts for now.

Labels: birthday, clothes, photos, presents, shopping, stationary

by Ys | COMMENTS? 5 | permalink |

...for a little help?

http://welshcake.livejournal.com/24468.html

Any suggestions, opinions, confusion - anything really - would be gratefully appreciated :)

Labels: live journal, publishers, soul mates, writing

by Ys | COMMENTS? 1 | permalink |

As an early birthday present to myself (I'm turning 25 on Thursday!), I got my hair cut on Saturday.

I wasn't sure just how much I was going to get off when I went there. I hate going to the hairdressers - I find it really boring and quite expensive. I forego all that hair-washing and blow-drying and just get the dry-cut option, which means I can come home and wash and style it myself. I never know what to ask for when I sit in the chair. This time everyone gushed on about how long my hair was - it's only halfway down my back so it's not like it's touching my bum or anything. When I grabbed the ends and said, "Hmm, about this much off, please," everyone gasped. Apparently it was a lot. They thought I'd be upset to see it gone.



Don't get me wrong, I love my hair. And I mean I love it. I've always wanted beautiful long, dark, curly hair, and after years of waiting I finally got it. I adored my hair. The only time in my life I have ever been complimented by strangers is because of my hair. It's always the first thing people say, "Isn't you hair long now?" That's because I always used to have it cut short because it was easier to handle then, because I was trying to defeat the natural curl so had to dry it straight with the hairdryer whenever it was washed.

I only go to the hairdressers about once a year. I know, that sounds awful, but I do really find it boring. Anyway, if I don't go it gives my hair much more time to grow. It was a bit dead at the ends this time so I told her to take two inches off. She did it, but she still seemed worried I'd be upset. I wasn't. I then asked for some layers cut in around the my face. This was when she started talking to her friend and I ended up with it a bit shorter at the front than I was expecting. But I liked it.

I got home: Jem said it was very short. Ray came home and he said it was shorter than he'd been expecting. I washed it, left it to dry naturally (I'm not going to pretend I styled it because I so can't be bothered with that girlie stuff!) and a few hours later went to check what it looked like...



I loved it! I think it softens my face and doesn't drag me down as much as it does when it's much longer. The curls are tighter, it looks in much better condition. It's not as heavy anymore and it's going to be much cooler when it gets warmer. And the best part is it now takes me less than five minutes to brush it - less than five minutes! It used to take me at least fifteen minutes!

Labels: birthday, hair cut, photos

by Ys | COMMENTS? 4 | permalink |

I had a weird set of dreams last night.

I understand that hearing about other people's dreams can be very boring and often a complete waste of time. But it's not the actual events in the dreams that were that bizzare. Well, okay, yes parts of it were weird (I'll get to that in a minute) but the thing that weirded me out the most was that I was getting it on with two men who haven't been a single thought in my head now - or ever. In the dream I was in love with these two men (at different times) although in real life I honestly don't know a thing about them.



In the first dream I was back in the house I lived in when I was a child. Kyle from Roswell was standing in the toilet (this was an old house so had a separate toilet and bathroom) with his arms above his head. I walked up to him and kissed him. There was more but I found that the most bizzare part.

The second dream was more vivid. Jack from the White Stripes (I had to google him to find out his name!) was serenading me. His sister called me ugly and he whispered in my ear that he thought I was hot. When I told him how his sister didn't agree he went onto to whisper something about it being because she liked some kind of sauce on jellyfish!? The dream continued on and it was New Years Eve and Ray found me being stradled by Jack. He was understandably a bit put out but believed me when I said I hadn't done anything (even though I kind of had). Then the dream got really weird cos I was wading through mud up to my waist to get to a car that was going to drive us all down the sea. And Ray turned from a Jack Russel dog back into himself and then into a Hedehog!?

I didn't eat anything weird last night, I didn't talk about or watch anything that might inspire these kinds of dreams. All I did was play Lego Star Wars II. I think my subconscious mind might have finally gone mad on me. Aside from the fact that my boyfriend keeps turning into animals, why on earth was I in love with famous guys I don't even know? I need therapy.

Labels: dreams, lego star wars, photos, ray

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

As far as I can tell the feed thing is working. I added it to my own Google Reader (didn't even realise I had one!) and it seems to be doing just fine. Ugly, bland looking thing, though, isn't it? Seems to take all the fun out of designing a pretty-looking blog if the posts are read in a Reader that looks like that. I think I'll stick with the more old fashioned way of reading blogs ;)

We had snow over the weekend. Just a little scattering of it. And a few random showers throughout the day. I don't think I'll ever see real snow again. Not while I'm living so close to the beach anyway. In between the showers it was lovely and sunny and warm so I spent Sunday afternoon doing some gardening. I planted a Climbing Blue Moon Rose out the back. And we're in the process of putting up a shelf to put this season's plants (peppers, peas and tomatoes like last year) on, once they've rooted, obviously. And out the front we now have a Red Evergreen Azalea, which we've topped with shells from the beach, which we went to find with Sweepie Sunday afternoon. So the garden is slowly coming together now. I'm hoping by the time summer hits it'll be looking much more alive. I also found myself in a clothes shop one morning buying a top that was on the sale. I have no idea how I got into the store but there you go ;) You can view some pictures from the weekend (and see my new top) HERE.

I also had a nice surprise this weekend: I learnt that New Kids on the Block have reunited and are doing a world tour! Now all I'm doing is praying that they come to the UK.

Then


Now


Have I ever shared the time I went to see Jordan back in 2006? It was a tiny little club, he was right there in front of me, and he tried desperately to give me tickets to see him the following night (he was doing a TV show) but I couldn't go cos I had to drive home that night. It still gives me butterflies now. I suppose you never really grow out of your teenage-crushes, do you?

EDIT: seems I spoke too soon. Google Reader isn't showing my new post, even though it was posted a few hours ago. So feeds either suck, or this is just my shit luck. So if it works for you: great; if it doesn't you'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way. *Kicks stupid FeedBurner and Google Reader*

Labels: beach, blogging, house stuff, jordan knight, new kids on the block, photos, sweepie, veg, websites

by Ys | COMMENTS? 4 | permalink |

Sizzle requested I add a feed to my site so that it can be read using a Google Reader. I don't use Google Reader and know nothing about RSS feeds but she showed me a super easy site to set one up :) So hopefully this will work...

I have set up an icon at the bottom of each post (next to the comments button), which should be clicked if you want to read the blog using a Reader of some kind. Does the link work? I know the icon button looks pretty but does it actually do what it's meant to?

Sizzle, does it work for you? I really hope so :)

Ray's home early from work today so I'm going to play with him instead of HTML for a little while now. Have a great weekend!

Labels: blogging, ray, websites

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

The snot's a-flying today. Yum. At least the bastard cold got out of my throat. And I have much more energy today, which makes me a much nicer person to be around.

With my new-found energy, I went down to see the estate agent about the entire mess that was/is our lease with them. We've signed a new lease directly with the landlord (due to them withholding funds from him) and so we just had to get our deposit back. We've all been putting off this meeting. If you knew our estate agent you'd know why. He's a Yes-Man, as in everything you ask he says yes to even if the answer is no. Basically, he talks a load of crap all of the time. That's fine until we're the ones out of pocket and made to look like idiots. So off me and Jem went this morning, down to his offices to sort stuff out. Of course, he acted as though he didn't have any idea anything was wrong. He claimed he'd sorted everything out with the landlord and then pulled up emails of correspondence between the two of them. All well and good, except when you look at the dates and you see these emails were sent after the landlord rang us to warn us that he/we were being screwed over by them. But we were polite little girls and just asked when we could get our deposit back. He didn't quite know what to say cos obviously he knew we'd rumbled his lies. Eventually he said he'd talk to his boss and get back to us on when we can get the money. He thinks he can't get it back for us before our six-month lease with them ends (July) but considering the lease was disolved because of their shitty ways I am inclined to believe we can have the money now. Needless to say he hasn't phoned to let us know. Which means there'll be another trip down to see him tomorrow.

Urgh, estate agents.

We went looking at some houses the other night. There's a new estate popped up just down the road from us and they keep advertising viewings. I want to set one up so we went for a spin round in the car first to see if we liked the look of them.

It was like driving onto a set. Artificial light, clean-clean roadways, houses that looked like they were made of plastic. I loved it!



Okay, I'm not saying I want to spend my entire life there but to be able to say I lived in a house in an estate like that would be... well, it would be great! Tell me these plans aren't gorgeous! A fake house to live in this increasingly fake world I find myself a part of - and it's right by the sea. Perfect. Just need to find £240,000 from somewhere now... ;)

Labels: estate agent, house stuff, jem, photos

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

The ill-feelings in my throat still haven't shifted. It's almost identical symptoms to the illness I had last month. Usually when I have a cold it goes through three stages. Stage 1: bad throat, a feeling as though I have swallowed sand; this feeling makes me nauseous and gives me a high temperature. By the next day I'm onto Stage 2: snotty nose, phlegmy-phlegmy mess. By the third or fourth day I'm onto Stage 3:, the final stage, the one that has been known to last months (pesky chest-infection): the coughing stage. But to hell with all those stages cos this cold - and the one last month - has its feet firmly and stubbornly stuck in Stage 1. If not for the temperature and nauseousness I might be relieved it wasn't going to consume my entire head with phlegm. We'll see where it takes itself over the next few days.

Because of my awfully non-existentweak immune system Ray decided to take me down to Tesco for a late-night pill-finding expedition. There we bought me some Echinacea, which apparently halves the chance of me getting a cold - yes please! Mammy's been on at me for ages to get some so I finally took her advice and bought it. She also keeps bugging me about getting some Iron tablets down my throat, as well, because of my delightfully heavy and exhausting periods. So I am now gobbling down my vitamins every day, begging each one to flow quickly into my system and heal me - and to build me some defensive walls. Only time will tell if my badgering will work.

Labels: illness

by Ys | COMMENTS? 1 | permalink |