I'm having one of those Oh Jeez how old are you, girl? moments. Because I spent a large portion of this morning contemplating why butter is the same price in all the supermarkets - be they the big ones like Tesco, or the cheaper ones like Farmfoods. I thought it strange that I can shop around for pretty much every other item on my shopping bill and find lots of different prices (and varieties) but with butter it's all the same. Why is that, do you think?

The visit last night was really fun. I do really like having visitors. I'm sure I suck as a hostess (the fact that Ray's mother had to ask for a cup of tea, and then me giving her sugar when she didn't want one, pretty much proved that ;D) but it's just so much fun to get new people to talk to - fresh conversation and new reactions, and an excuse to babble ;) I've noticed something, as well. When we visit Ray's family they treat him like a kid but when they visit our house they treat him like an adult. It makes me giggle. Because I expect them to be one way and then they act completely different. Except his mother - she's the same whatever house we're in, precisely because she is his mother :) It's probably simply because he's always been baby-Ray at home, and then here they realise he has a house of his own and a life of his own that he's able to run by himself like a grown-up. What they don't realise is that I'm the one in charge - and he'd better not forget it, hehehe ;)

Sweepie was anti-social and barked for the first ten minutes they were here. Simon offended her somehow. By being a man, I think. She calmed down eventually and sulked in her bed, being a princess and not letting him touch her head. I picked her up in the end and after the cuddle she felt much better and ran off into the front room to sit with Jemma. She's such a slob. She never wants to leave the sofa for long ;)

Reverting back to the money topic: I got some Safex Condoms to try. Never tried that brand before. There's Sensitive, Natural and Ribbed. Any one tried those ones before? Any good? I'll be sure to review them once I've given them a go. I'll tell my opinion of the Crown condoms at the same time then. Good bargain, though, weren't they? I can always find a bargain ;)

Labels: condoms, food, in-laws, life, money, shopping, sweepie, visitors

by Ys | COMMENTS? 1 | permalink |

Ray and I went out last night for drinks. While we were in the pub we decided to treat ourselves to a desert. We were tempted to have two separate choices but it worked out cheaper (and you know how I love to save every penny I can) if we shared something called an Ultimate Sharing Sundae. It sounded lovely:

Chocolate fudge cake, profiteroles, vanilla flavour ice cream, Cadbury’s Crunchie Nuggets and chocolate flakes with chocolate flavour fudge sauce and a whip of cream

And it was. But it was also huge. It was apparently meant for two people to share but I think even four would have struggled. I ate as much as I could but I had to leave the rest for Ray. I think I must have gained about fifty pounds just by looking at it!

We ended the evening in Tesco - yes, we are that hardcore ;) We bought two storage boxes (blue and black, not silver and black, though) for the bedroom. While I fell in love with all the circus kitchen accessories, which all appeared to be on the sale, which probably means they won't be available for much longer :( I can't wait 'til we can properly dress the kitchen.

Now then, do you want to test how smart you are? It's an english test. I am a writer, an avid reader, and English is my first language... yet I only got 15/20! Test Your Brain. Let me know how you got on :)

Labels: food, house stuff, pub, quiz, ray, shopping

by Ys | COMMENTS? 5 | permalink |

I was planning a nice relaxing day today. You know those days where you just wake up feeling sleepy, the weather's rotten, so you just imagine a day spent curled up on the sofa with your puppies? It didn't happen.

Just as I was brushing my hair after my shower the phone rang. I hurdled the mess to get to the phone in my parent's room. Lucky I answered it because it was my mother. Yesterday she'd ferried some dogs from a dog's home to the vets (where she works as a vet-nurse); she does this quite often. Yesterday she had Falls with her, which, again, happens quite often. Only what they found out today is that one of the dogs she was carrying in the back of her car has Parvovirus. For non-dog owners maybe you don't know what this is. The link will help, but in short it's a really nasty disease that means the infected dog has to be quaranteened from others. The disease can be spread from one dog to the other via human clothing, or other dog's coats or feet. Of course, Falls was with Mammy yesterday. He came into contact with the dog. It might have been brief but it could have been enough to do damage. And we have the puppies who are at a greater risk of fatality to the disease because they are so young, and obviously they aren't vaccinated.

So, after finishing talking to Mammy, I abandoned my relaxing day for some vigorous cleaning. I started by taking note of what everyone had been wearing last night and got Jem and Amber to give me those clothes to put in the wash. I got any shoes, as well, and made sure they were cleaned with disenfectant. Then I stripped the throws off the sofas, the beds out of the dog's baskets and the puppies' soft toys. I then got the mop out, filled it with disenfectant and mopped the kitchen, dining-room and living-room. Then I got the pups out of the cage and mopped their floor down, changed and mopped their bed, before putting fresh newspaper and a clean bed in for them.

Unfortunately, now all we can do is wait and see. Falls wasn't with the infected dog for very long, and although he did play with the pups last night he was tired after his day in work and so did spend most of the night asleep on the sofa. We've done all we can do now. We just have to wait and see and pray that everyone will be okay.

Diseases and worry aside, I did go out for a lovely meal with Jem last night. I ate a lot and we talked about the houses we're going to see at the weekend. We're trying to guess the plan of one of them because it seems like there's too many rooms for such a small space. It took them forty-five minutes to take our bill, as well. And even then they didn't take it, we just went up to the bar and asked if we could pay. You'd think they'd be chomping our hands off for the money.

Okay, I'm going back to worrying now...

Labels: dogs, falls, food, illness, jem, mammy, money, puppies, vets

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

I did sunbathe yesterday. I spent the morning with my ipod plugged into my ears (or on to to be more accurate cos the in-ear-plugs hurt my ears so I have click-over your ear plugs instead; sometimes I do act like a flakey girl ;D), reading Stephen King's Firestarter. I'm not always keen on his earlier work but this one's grabbed me. Sure, it had a bit of hard work to do considering I was still mourning Harry Potter.

In the afternoon I went with Amber to her college so she could re-enrol after her year off last year. She was a little nervous so big sisters one and two went along, too. So I got to sample her driving. She's really good. I was impressed. I am a shockingly nervous passenger but only had to close my eyes twice when I got a little scared. On the way home, we looked for the horses in the field and couldn't find them. Mammy assures us they were probably just hiding in the trees.

On a whim I suggested Ray and I go down my local for a meal out. I haven't been in the mood for going out lately (I blame the shocking weather) so I jumped on my enthusiasm. When Ray got back from work we had to go down to his house so he could pick up his new wallet. Only when we got there he discovered his gran, while being helpful, had gone through his room looking for dirty clothes. Only she also found a bag of sex-stuff. She didn't mention anything but Ray knew the bag had been... handled, shall we say. Dear Lord! But that was forgotten about when it was discovered that Ray's wallet was missing. There was some searching but Ray was hungry and so cos he had his bank card said he'd come home later and search for it. While getting money out of the machine down the road he got a phone call from his mother: the wallet had been found: in the tumble-dryer. Oh dear. As of yet, I don't know how much money was salvaged. It was a new wallet as well with heaps of fun stuff in (such as Star Trek money and a Futurama bank card, which Jem had got him for his birthday) so I hope that everything survived.

When we did finally eat it was a lovely meal. I had the most inventive vegetarian pub meal I've ever had: vegetable ravioli, surrounded by lots of veg in a pasta sauce. It was gorgeous. Mmm. It was hot, though, and I have burned the roof of my mouth pretty bad. It was all worth it.

Mammy's off work today so I'm expecting lots of giggles. SHe's hilarious when she's not in work. Plus Madge is going for her first rendevouz with her Pug boyfriend this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed for fast swimmers and inviting eggs, okay?

Labels: amber, books, driving, food, jem, mammy, money, ray

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |