It's Ray's birthday today. He turns twenty-two. When we first started dating he was nineteen. As I keep on reminding him: he'll always be my younger man no matter what his age ;)

The celebrations started Friday night with what I seem to recall was called "the best ever". Saturday we planned a lazy day slobbing around the house, hugging Sweepie and making sure she didn't feel too sad when we left her the following day. It didn't work: she saw me packing and started pouting that night. Sunday was a very early morning wake-up call so that we could be on the road by 8. We weren't actually on the road 'til twenty minutes after that. The wedding vow renewals were lovely. They got it done in a little wood hut, which got me quite excited cos I've always had this vision of my ideal wedding day... I won't give it all away but a hut-like building is in there. The party afterwards at the pub didn't include dancing unfortunately (the singer didn't turn up!) but there was lots of conversations with various members of my family. I rarely get to see my parents' brothers and sisters so when I do I always feel like a stranger. They're all really close so we're always out on our own. Not this time, though; this time we were embraced, which was really nice. I got clucky over my second-cousin who is four years old and doesn't ever shut up. "Are you ready to be tickled, girls?" So dodgy ;) Ray curled his hand over mine, tapped my wedding finger and mouthed "Mine." The night was going great 'til I got really bad stomach pains and had to run to the toilet in fear I was going to vomit. I had to go home by 9pm. I couldn't work out what was wrong until I remembered that I'd taken some painkillers without food. That's what upset my stomach last time. I'd worried my period pain would ruin the night so I took my strong painkillers; turns out they were what ruined it for me in the end. Typical. I missed my mother being hilariously drunk. She's always a laugh when she's drunk ;) She did think the room Ray and I were sleeping in was a toilet... But found out quick enough it wasn't not to cause embarrassment ;)

A TRIP TO TELFORD

Today, it being the actual day of Ray's birthday, Ray and I spent half an hour in bed before we had to get up. He opened his cards and was allowed one of my presents (Series 5 of "Red Dwarf"). Tonight he gets to open the rest, gets to eat banoffi pie, and he has one extra present, which I picked up today in town. I'll gush and share pictures tomorrow. Today I have to wrap presents and get everything ready for him :)

Labels: birthday, family, illness, life, love, mammy, photos, presents, ray

by Ys | COMMENTS? 0 | permalink |

I fell into Outfit last night. I should probably sue them. Where there's a claim there's a blame and all that...

I then accidently fell into the sale rack. I looked down and found a white shirt on my arm. Dazed and confused, I continued down the shop. I fell into some gorgeous dresses but, lucky for me, they were all way above the knee and I don't wear anything that short. On I stumbled, tumbling from one rack of clothes to the next. Before I knew it a green cami top had joined the white shirt on my arm.

I begged Ray not to let me fall into Warehouse. They're too expensive, I mumbled incoherently, as I made my way through the racks of clothes. Far too expensive. Don't let me look! He took my arm and led me away from a row of lovely floral skirts. He's a good boyfriend.

I soon found myself in the changing rooms, dancing along to an All Saint's song, exclaiming far too loudly how much I adored the green top. I completely forgot I was in a changing room and had no one in there with me (usually I shop with Jem or/and Mammy and we give running commentry on what we're trying on - "I'm putting my right arm in that pink shirt I picked up," "My bum won't fit in these jeans!" "I'm not coming out dressed in this!" etc., etc.). The white shirt was next. It was a lovely fit, nicely fitted around the waist to show off the spread of my hips.

Outside again, I asked Ray to check the prices and to then tell me if I could have either. After a quick calculation he said I could have both! Both! I say again: he's a very good boyfriend :) At the till they must have thought I was going to sue them for the way I'd fallen into the shop and then fallen to the till with garments to buy, cos they knocked £4 off the shirt. I didn't need to ask. She just scanned the tag and it came up as £3.

We hot-tailed it out of the shop after that. Me smug with my new clothes, Ray smug cos it had come in under twenty quid. And that was my evening out. I now own these two lovely tops and want an excuse to wear them out and about ;)



I have one message for you all: Go Shopping! Go on, treat yourselves. I haven't had anything new in ages (since the car ate all the money we had) and it felt so good to finally just give in and splurge. I want everyone to share in that splurging goodness with me. Go splurge! Go!

PS: Don't forget to sponsor Hilary as well, that way when you're selfishly buying stuff for yourself you will know in your heart you've done some good elsewhere too :)

Labels: photos, ray, shopping

by Ys | COMMENTS? 5 | permalink |

I'm still cranky but I think this is more to do with tiredness than anything else. Tired of being on, hehehe ;)

It was Visiting The Family Day yesterday. Ray's house was filled with people. It often is on a Sunday but I haven't seen it fill up that quick in a long while. We didn't stay long. I don't know what to say about it. It's a weird time. We then went on to see my Old Folk, with the dogs, as well. We like to gatecrash spectacularly ;) Mammy welcomed us with a present: some spotty mugs for the kitchen:



Very cute. She's spoiling us again. I christened them with some wine last night. The wine was disgusting (I just don't like wine no matter how hard I try!) so after a couple of sips I concluded the christening was finished and didn't need to drink anymore.

It's been a weekend of watching films. First: Be Kind Rewind. It was such a lovely, sweet film. Funny, of course, as you'd expect from Jack Black (that man can make me laugh with just a look!), but very sweet, as well, which I wasn't expecting. I liked it :) Then we watched A Cock & Bull Story, which I have loved since I first saw it three years ago. I finally found it to buy! Everyone must see this film: it's so kooky and funny :) And, finally, last night we watched The Crow: Wicked Prayer. I only wanted it cos David Boreanaz is in it (I've been in love with him for an age!). I quite liked Edward Furlong back in my days of youth, as well. Both actors can act, just a shame that what they were acting with was so bad. Awful film, of course, but it had some strangely pretty moments with the flashback/after-death scenes spliced in.

It's back to the real world now, though. Paying bills and writing, and thinking what I'm going to be eating for lunch today... ;)

Labels: daddy, david boreanaz, films, house stuff, in-laws, life, mammy, photos, presents

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

I'm better! It's a miracle! I somehow beat tonsillitis into submission. I am completely indebted to Echinacea pills. Seriously, I can't reccomend these pills any more strongly. They are miracle workers. I used to be ill all the time but now I haven't had a proper illness since I started taking them! And if they can beat off tonsillitis then I'm going to take them until the end of my days. Thanks for all the well-wishes :)

Now I can pimp my new goodies.

First of all: my precious kitchen. It's my new room to dress (I love saying I'm dressing a room; I don't know what else to call it cos I'm not furnishing it!). White With Spots is the theme. So Jem got some pots...



Which are now filled with tea, cofee and sugar. Look at how pretty they are next to my fantabulous teapot:



She also bought us a utensils-drainer. I don't know what that's called actually. It's basically a pot to put the knives and forks in when they're drying off after being washed up. It matches our one for the plates, etc. perfectly:



That's inside the house done. I now have some extremely exciting news (well it is to me anyway... ;D): I have grown my first tomatoe!!



I can't take all the credit cos Ray has been helping me out a lot with it, but, it's still a tomatoe and I've never grown one before with or without help. The outside plants tend to be left to me to look after so I'm happy to take most of the credit ;) But it was Ray's idea to move them outside; I thought they'd die. Turns out I was wrong (he's gonna love that ... ;D). I'll let you know if it ever turns red and if I get anymore growing! The peppers are doing great - both normal and sweet kinds. We've been happily eating the normal peppers for the past couple of months; the sweet ones need a bit longer. The peas are nearly ready for eating as well! How good are we? Growing our own food!

And you should have seen the amount of rubbish we recycled this week - clothes, shoes, paper, cardboard and an old TV. I do love to recycle. It's a nice place to visit cos everyone's really nice. I met a short woman this week who couldn't reach the tall cardboard-bin so I had to help. And a man taught us that we had to poke the clothes into the clothes-bin cos it was so full.

Ray loved his phone, by the way. He was playing with it all night so I think that means it was a success :)

Finally, please can everyone say a big Happy Birthday to Martha over at her blog? She's ten today!

Labels: house stuff, illness, life, photos, ray, recycling, veg

by Ys | COMMENTS? 4 | permalink |

I'm ill. It might be tonsillitis, again, but it might not. I've been pumping my body full of painkillers, sucking on Strepsils and drinking squash every other minute, and it seems to have slowed down the process. I'm hoping it might have stopped the bug all together but I've never known tonsillitis to be stopped in its tracks before. So I'm just waiting around, seeing how it develops. It made me sleep for ten hours last night! So it's not all bad ;)

I've got lots of photos of the house I want to share - new goodies, new developments with the plants - but I'm too sickly to post them today so I'll save them for another time.

About the only productive thing I did this weekend was buy Ray an early birthday present...



It's a Sony Ericsson T280i. He wanted a different one, one that had a few more gadgets on but considering his phones only last on average six months I told him I wasn't going to spend all that money. The T280i is a great looking phone, anyway, and I'm sure he'll be happy with it. His latest phone died last week and considering he needs one for work I figured an early birthday present was in order. It should be arriving any minute. Then I just need to find the energy to wrap it up ;)

Ahh I hope this illness passes over soon. For today I'm just going to have to curl up with a good book and keep the fluids up.

Labels: birthday, illness, mobile phone, photos, ray, shopping, tonsillitis

by Ys | COMMENTS? 6 | permalink |

I've been making some adjustments. Actually, what I really mean is that I've been distracting myself from writing by playing with new gadgets online that I'm sure to get bored of when my writing bug returns.

So I've finally added a few silly videos of the Pugs to my Youtube page...



There is a permanent link on the right-hand side of the page as well :)

Plus, I've taken Gen's advice, and have got myself a Flickr. Because I didn't update my Photography site anymore, I thought I'd save some space, close it down and move my favourite pictures onto Flickr. Plus I think it'll give me a new burst of enthusiasm to start taking photos again. I'd actually forgotten the pretty shots of Fightstar I've got over the last year or so. I'll have to take my camera to the gigs again, I think :)

And my final new development is non-Blog related. I am going to start playing badminton. I used to play it a lot as a child/teen but when I got older I just stopped. There is now a leisure centre right down the road from me so Jem and I have decided to take up the hobby again. My first session is tomorrow morning and, for a girl who hates exercise of any kind, I am actually very excited. You just know there's going to be a thousand and one cock jokes being said tomorrow morning, of course...

Labels: badminton, blogging, flickr, life, photos, video, websites, youtube

by Ys | COMMENTS? 1 | permalink |

Remember I said I'd fallen in love with the Circus Kitchen stuff? Well, Ray give into me and he got me two of the things (actually the two not listed on the website)...



I fell in love with the teapot as soon as I saw it. I have no idea why cos I haven't made tea in a teapot since I was a kid. But it's just so gorgeous and looks so good in the kitchen:



I tried it out for the first time last night and let me tell you the tea tasted lovely :)



I now want matching coffee, sugar and biscuit barrels. Plus I want the funky cutlery set to match as well.

The house is really starting to come together now. Mammy and Daddy got a new sofa so have given us their spare (which is also a sofa-bed so now when we have guests they have somewhere to sleep!). Which meant we could move the furniture around in the main room, finally able to split the front and back of the room into two separate areas. So the front part of the room, the social part, looks like this:



And the back part of the room, the quiet place, where the computer is and now there's a place to read as well, looks like this:



I love how quickly the house is finally coming together. It took us six months but finally it's looking like a real, grown-up's house. So everyone is invited round for cups of tea now :) The reason for the little treats was because we got our deposit back from the estate agent! Yes, finally, we got our money back. The manager had to handle the case in the end cos the guy we'd been dealing with has been given the sack cos he was doing his job wrong! Typical! Never mind, at least we have our money back (four months later...). And the house is at last starting to feel like a real home :)

Labels: estate agent, house stuff, money, photos, shopping

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

I am very annoyed by the ending of Dr Who this weekend. The part I did like was that the Doctor didn't die (David Tennent is hilarious as Dr Who) and that he was morbidly depressed at the end of the show (I do like dark emotions). But I have a big gripe with the fact that they got rid of Donna.



Not only was she a great character - managing to be strong, funny, gentle and loving all in one - but she was, as far as I'm concerned, one of the only quote-unquote normal women on TV. What I mean by that is that she's a woman - not a girl; she's over the age of thirty and actually looks her age; she dresses in clothes made for a woman not a teen, plus she doesn't have everything hanging out (so rare these days). I was annoyed enough when the creators of the show said no way to any hanky panky between her and the Doctor - I mean, why wouldn't a millenium-old man fancy a strong woman who can keep him in line? Just because she's not skinny, blonde, buxom and submissive, doesn't mean she's not attractive. Now that her character has been shown the exit door, I honestly can't think of any single female on TV or film who would make as good a role model as she was. I don't get attached to female's in the media very often because none of them speak to me on any level other than the odd "she's hot". I know it's probably a boring thing to hear - yet another pissed female griping on about how the only women depicted in the media are skinny, young blonde girls without any sense, but it's true! Sure, I have a chip on my shoulder because I'm not skinny, blonde and stupid, but that's cos I'm average-weight, dark-haired and have a brain - and am of the opinion that when I have children I don't want them to be raised to believe that's the be all and end all of life. There should be more characters like Donna on the TV! Much, much more. The media is so centred around youth and skinniness, and stupidity, and selfishness, and beauty, and every one needing to look and act the same (be that blonde bimbos or angry goths - I am completely aware there are two stereotypes of women portrayed). I've never followed the crowd so now that the media is focused on only one stereotype character for all their female roles I find it extrmely difficult to relate to them, and to then enjoy the programme. Rant, rant, rant ;)

I was cheered up Sunday evening when Nadal won Wimbledon!



It went to a five-set game, even though Nadal was winning by two sets by the time they went into the third set. He did it just to keep us all on the edge of our seats ;) It was nerve-wrecking to watch (poor Ray got his hand squeezed too hard several times) and when he finally did win we all hollered. And he was so gracious in his victory as well. Truly adorable. Finally some fair play: the best player of the tournament won. I'm going to miss the tennis ...

Labels: dr who, nadal, photos, rant, tennis, wimbledon

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

Last night I went to visit my in-laws. Ray's mother was in work and his gran is poorly so after a bit of chatting we amused ourselves with some old photos Ray had found.

I come from a family that documented most of our lives from childhood onwards. Actually, I think it slowed down once we all got into our teens but then we were able to take over the job ourselves and so there has always been albums full of photos in the cupboards. The other week my parents dug them out and we all stood in the kitchen reminiscing, laughing and teasing each other about the funny faces we were pulling in the shots.

I forget that other people don't take as many photographs. I forget that other people don't put their photos into albums.

Last night I sat down expecting to see heaps of embarrassing photos of Ray when in fact there was only a handful that he featured in. One when he was about twelve - such a skinny blonde thing, and always in a baseball cap. The others from his uncles wedding when he was wearing make-up to cover up a black eye from a fight the night before. He assures me the fight had not been his or his uncle's fault but do you think I beleive him? Do I heck! ;) And finally some photos of him with his cousin proudly holding up some fish they'd caught.

He doesn't say it but I know he feels sad that there aren't more photos of him. That my endless albums worth of childhood photos remind him that his life was different to mine. It made me think about my own childhood.

Ray has always said he loves visiting my family because our house is a home, that everyone can say and do what they like - we're all a bunch of idiots who don't care, basically. I didn't realise just how fun and relaxed and filled with love my family home was and is. I went through some tough times with my family in my late-teen years but looking at us now and how we were before the bad times I wonder how it ever happened, how they could be the same parents who hurt me so much. Because they're not like that anymore. They weren't before and they're not now.

I guess moving out of home has made me look at my family and my family life in a new light, from a different angle. I had a wonderfully happy childhood, no matter how bad it got after puberty hit, the childhood was fun. And in between the bad times the good times were always so good. It's nice to be able to appreciate the good parts of life. I spent so long concentrating on the negative that I forgot to see that there was some damn good times mixed in there too.

Basically: my family rule! ;)

Labels: childhood, daddy, family, in-laws, love, mammy, photos

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

I got itchy feet with my writing/author/book website so I did a brand new layout:



What do you think?

I used books because obviously the website is about writing books, and I added pictures of my cute glasses, which are the ones I leave upstairs for when I'm writing. The orange colour just came from the glasses. I also decided to switch the updates over into Blogger because Jem wanted to subscribe to them :) Makes it all look a lot neater now, as well, I think; plus it'll be easier to update now.

That just leaves one more site to work on before I get back to my real job (writing)... my photo site. I'm thinking of closing it down. I never add anything new to it anymore because my photography bug seems to have passed itself onto Ray. I really only liked taking photos of the puppies and live bands anyway. I don't have any more puppies because they grew up (yes I do still love taking pictures of Sweepie but I don't feel they're good enough for a website; they're just for me), and the live bands I do see (if I see any) tend to be getting-squashed-down-the-front bands, where you do not want to take your precious camera (well I don't anyway). So I think the website might soon close down. I haven't decided yet, though.

I'll be a bit behind on the blog-reading today because I'm baby-sitting Falls for my mother (Sweepie's brother) and he needs constant attention. So I'll read the blogs tomorrow. Don't all post a hundred times just because I'm a day behind now, okay? ;)

Labels: Fall Out Boy, gigs, layout, photos, puppies, sweepie, websites, writing

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

I just wrote a post and have deleted it. I'm in one of those moods today: can't settle on anything, my mind racing around a million ideas at once. I think I might start calling this My Last Pill For Another Week And I'm Freaking Out About The Fact That I Might Now Turn Into A Hormonal Girl day.

So instead of trying to tackle anything that might need my mind focused or might stir up hysteria (not that I think any of my posts could ever do that to be honest, but you get the drift...), I thought I'd post a picture of my new shower-rail and curtain.



The one that was here when we moved in was made of plastic. It held itself together for about a month before the poles started slipping away from the wall and drooping down further and further into the bath. It fell down on me once when I was in the shower but Ray managed to put it back together and it held on for another couple of weeks. By this time I'd found a new Shower Rail, which was chrome not plastic, and at a bargain price. Using Hilary's visit as an excuse, we all scraped together our pennies and bought the thing. To go with it, we treated ourselves to a new shower curtain (the original ones had gone disgustingly brown at the ends that would not budge even after I washed them).

So although our bathroom still makes an awful lot of noise (I will get round to posting about our Saniflo Toilet one of these days...) it does now have a very pretty shower-rail, and the curtain has brought some blue into an otherwise beige room. Oh how I hate beige after six months of living in it...

Labels: bathroom, house stuff, photos, toilet

by Ys | COMMENTS? 1 | permalink |

As I said in my last post, my friend Hilary came to stay at the weekend. And it was so much fun. I'd forgotten how much fun it was/is to have friends stay over. And she has so much energy!

On Saturday us three girls went down the pub for a drink and a catch-up. I can't remember everything we talked about because we seemed to talk about everything! Hilary serenaded us with a couple of songs. We thought she was kidding about one of them - actually we were convinced she'd just made it up but I have actually found it online! "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)". And, yes, she sang it all and that fast and she knew every single line! Hahaha.

In the evening we (including Ray this time: our photographer for the weekend) went for a walk around our cycle track - it is ours; we love it so it's ours. We showed off the crummybeach and then started teaching Hilary how to pronounce Welsh words. Cefn was her favourite because she pronounced it Kevin.



That night we stayed up talking 'til 1am. Religion and politics and school and sex education and friends we'd lost to sex or drugs. It was so good to discuss so much politics and religion, which are two of my favourite topics of discussion, because Hilary has so much knowledge on both. It was just so invigorating. I had no idea that the American law stated that religion and politcs were meant to be separate, and that therefore the party's are breaking the law. Fascinating. And on a weird side note: we saw one of the Mormon guys who tried to convert me a few weeks back.

On Sunday we went down one of our local woodland parks and had a picnic and a wander around, and, of course, did much talking. I don't think I've ever been with anyone who can talk that much and never run out of stories to tell. It was fantastic! We also gave Hilary her first ever pasty.

At 4pm we bid a sad farewell as Hilary climbed aboard her train and headed back to London, where she hoped to get some sleep, something of which she'd missed out on all weekend. I think we all moped around that night missing her company. She really injected some life into the house, after we'd all been getting quite stagnant and mopey about constantly being broke and the mundane 9-5 lifestyle.

Come back soon, Hilary! You're always welcome :) A few photos from the weekend.

Labels: friends, hilary, life, photos, politics, religion, woodland park

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

Wow it's been a busy weekend.

First of all: Joe Absolom finally has a new project. So I was running round (online obviously) trying to find news about that. I love it when he does new projects cos I get to play with my site :)

The weekend was ruled by dog-sitting. Not paid this time, just looking after the dogs, cats, rabbits and birds for my parents while they're away on their holidays. Amber was doing some days and when she was out me and Ray took up the challenge. The first afternoon was awful. The dogs were wound up because we'd brought Sweepie with us and just basically misbehaved the entire time. We went back Saturday for the night and that was much more bearable. We watched Alien Vs Predator - Requiem. It was Ray's choice of film. I didn't really understand what was going on so just before it ended I had to admit my stupidity and ask him what the Predator guy was up to. He explained the history of it (why didn't the film explain he was after the Queen Alien?) and then it made more sense. It was still quite a pants film, though.

In between all the dog-sitting, I suggested we go have a picnic in the water park. That was really nice. The sun was out, it was lovely and warm, the dogs had a great time, and we treated ourselves to some yummy food. Mmm. The coast was covered in mist from the sea so we went for a walk in it. It was quite spooky. And when we came home the second time from my parents house, we decided to eat pizza and chips outside in the garden. It was great to be able to really enjoy our surroundings and make the most of it. The picnic, the walk on the beach, the dinner in the garden: it was great to really appreciate this place, this place that is my home. I'm so lucky :)

You can see pictures from my weekend here, including shots from home, the picnic, the beach and our dinner in the garden.

Not being at home for most of the weekend does mean I have heaps of stuff to catch up on today. Expect multiple comments on missed blog entries, emails answered, my hair freshly dyed and a new book to read because Ray liked the sound of other one I was meant to start and has nicked it to read first.

Labels: amber, beach, daddy, dog-sitting, films, house stuff, joe absolom, life, mammy, photos, ray, reading, websites

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

The dog did run away again. He got past me, dug up the stuff I'd put in the hole he'd made and scarpered. He was back by morning and I practically ran out the door when it was time for me to go home. That was officially the most stressful day on the job so far. For the first time in ages, Ray and I slept in each other's arms all night last night. Usually one of us gets too hot or my neck starts to hurt (I have a weakness in my neck from when I pulled it a few years ago) so we pull apart during the night. I think I was so desperate for some protection I stayed close to him all night. It was nice. I'd say it might become the norm but I know it won't so there's no point. I overheat when I'm asleep. I'm sure there's some scientific reason for it. I'm cold when I'm awake and boiling when asleep. Weird.

Today I finally did some writing. It's felt like writing is just a hobby I do if I have time lately. Not as if writing is my full-time job, which it is. I hate it when it gets like that. It's all these jobs. I know they're only for a couple of days but it breaks up the routine and then I can't get back to it cos I'm catching up on other things that need doing.

I've uploaded some new photos, which are from various weekends/weekdays I've spent enjoying the sun. There's a lot of the dogs this time round (as if that's not the norm ;D).

I've also become a little obsessed with Good Reads and have been posting some small reviews of the books I've read recently. I always find book reviews helpful when I'm choosing a book to read but I never write any so I thought I'd put that right been as I must have read about ten books in the last month! And a lot of them have been really quirky and very me. Such as Landscape With Animals which is an erotic but has more to it than just that - so rare to find. And Polystom which was both sci-fi and olde worlde - again, extremely rare to find such a mix. It's so nice to find other authors who mix genres like I do. There is hope for me yet :) And even if there isn't it does prove that there are good books out there.

Labels: dog-sitting, photos, ray, reading, websites, writing

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

The new car wouldn't start the next day. She's been in the garage since Wednesday. Apparently her immobiliser is broken, which means she keeps immobilising herself, hence why she won't start. The garage we bought her from are being gits about it, saying how it's not their problem, our warranty only covers engine and gear box problems. Even though when we picked her up she did the exact same thing to them and they passed it off as being a problem with the gadget inside they key. Grr! So she was fixed yesterday by another garage, and that guy is giving her a once-over today to make sure there's nothing wrong with her engine or gear box cos if there is she's going straight back from where we bought her. So that was more expense we couldn't really afford. Puts back paying off our debts by a week :/ She's apparnently coming home tonight. We'll see...

But enough about that stupid car. I received a package through the mail on Wednesday. A brown crate...



I've actually been waiting for this package for about a month now. I sent off for it ages ago and hoped it would arrive in time for my birthday. It didn't, but it's here now. What was inside? Well...



An endangered species, of course. A panda to be more precise. All tucked up nice and snug in her crate. Here's what she looks like:



Looks like my Sweepie when she's in a bad mood actually! She's lovely and soft. I haven't named her yet because she's still mostly just sitting in her crate (must be getting used to the new climate ;D). But I can apparently go online and download her birth certificate, which I thought was a really cute idea. As you can tell, this promotion was actually aimed at kids but, hell, I can't resist cute, soft things ;)

Here she is making friends with Mr Monkey and Doll-A-Lolla:



I just uploaded those images using Photobucket's new jazzy picture-uploading-doo-dad and it was so slow and crap. You'd think they'd test out these new gadgets before unleashing them on us. And what's with the very loud advertisment that you can't switch off when you're pictures are uploading? Grr.

This post was brought to you by a very grumpy sounding me. I'm not really as grumpy as I sound... honest ;)

Labels: car, internet, photos

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

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 |

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 |

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 |

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 |

I had a great Easter weekend. Did a lot of eating, a little drinking and quite a bit of shopping so all in all I think it was a success.

Saturday night we tried the pub down the road. It's closer than the pubs/bars in town, and we've eaten there before so we know the food's nice, but we'd never just had drinks there before. We had some change so we figured we'd give it a go. It was lovely. Nice and warm and cosy. And I got to try out my new glasses in a pub environment. Here's the brown/orange ones...



And a bit of a crappy photo of the black/red ones as well:



I'm starting to wonder how I coped without them now. I got really frustrated when I was trying to read something up on a high shelf in Tesco; I had to get Ray to tell me what it said. And the TV is just so blurry without them. Ray and I have been playing the When Can You Read That Road Sign game. He wins every time. Showing off cos he can see and I can't... ;)

Sunday was spent with Ray's family and then mine. I had a really nice day just sitting round other people's houses, then coming home to eat a huge meal before getting back the second time to mounds of cake (cake was our Easter treat). Mmm.

On Monday Ray and I spent the whole day together, just the two of us. It seems like ages since we last did that. We went shopping and just slowly wandered around picking up bargains without even having to try. We each had a gift for £8. I had purple version of this T-shirt cos it was just too cute to resist. And Ray got a game for the xbox360. We also picked up a new shelf, a curtain pole and three kitchen-knives for the house. We had a lovely hot chocolate when we got back - cos we didn't want to go home straight away we called in on town and had a drink together. It was a really nice day. One of those ones where I kept falling in love with Ray over and over again. And how exciting is all that stationary in Borders? I was nearly passing out with excitement!

Back to the real world now, though. Ray went back to work today, I have to clean the house and get back to writing. We have to start trying to squeeze in everything that needs doing in the few hours we have between Ray coming home from work and us going to bed. Still, it was a good weekend and one I think we all definitely needed.

Check out some photos from the weekend HERE.

PS: The Tudors Series 2 - whee!

Labels: easter, glasses, holidays, house stuff, photos, ray, shopping

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

I do need glasses. Turns out I'm short-sighted in my right eye, and my eyes are wonky, which means they are arguing over which one will focus on what I'm looking at. Hence the headaches and blurry vision. I have picked out two frames (I had a two-for-one offer), with the help of Mammy.

The first pair I chose just jumped off the shelf at me. I adored them as soon as I put them on. They're black frames with red borders (the red isn't as bright as the picture makes them look).



The second free pair were a little harder to find. I knew I wanted either a green or orange pair and they had to be quite thick frames. In the end I found the orange version of these, which Mammy says look very summery so I'll have a pair for the sunny weather too ;)



I'm picking them up tomorrow afternoon. I will then no longer get headaches or eye-strain when I'm writing on the computer, reading, watching TV and playing the xbox360. I can't wait! And been as I only need them when doing those things I don't have to wear them all the time and get sick of them, which suits me fine cos you know fickle I can be.

I should have pictures of me sporting those new frames within the next couple of days. Today I'm going to meet my old friend from primary school. I imagine the entire afternoon will be spent talking and remeniscing, and eating cake! Incidently, she was the first person I knew (other than my father) who wore glasses.

Labels: glasses, life, photos

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

It's just taken my spanking new computer (okay, he's five months old, so maybe he's not spanking anymore...) about three hours to put 1.3GB of photos onto a DVD-disc capable of holding 4.7GB. I don't think it should have taken that long. So I think it must have been my technique. Maybe copy-and-pasting isn't the way to go when using Vista. It doesn't matter now cos my pictures are backed up and so if I accidently delete them (yes, I admit, I lost about six pictures the other day when I put the wrong files in the wrong folder and wrote over the existing pictures...) it won't matter.

This morning I powered up my parents' old computer, which they lent me so that I could get some work off floppy discs. New computers don't have floppy drives so when I found out my memory stick wasn't holding two of my larger novels I panicked about how I was going to retrieve them. Then I remembered my parents still had an old computer knocking about. I found a love-note to Ray on one of the discs that I for some reason hadn't given him. After reading it, I printed it out and am leaving it on the bed for him to find when he gets home from work. I hope it will make up for what happened last night, and help to explain my feelings for him and that as much as they are a work-in-progress, just look at the mess I got myself into when the feelings were instant. Last night was tough for us both. I wish the past could remain buried so that I could enjoy my present and future. Unfortunately life doesn't work out that way.

Good past reared its head a couple of weeks ago. It's taken me this long to mention it because I wasn't sure if it was sticking around. A girl I used to be best friend's with between the ages of three and eleven found me online and we've been coresponding via email for a few weeks. It seems we've lived nearly identical lives. We're going to meet up later this month and I have high hopes. You see, the past doesn't always have to mean badness. That's something I'm learning.

Labels: daddy, friends, laptop, life, love, mammy, photos, ray

by Ys | COMMENTS? 1 | permalink |

It's Sweepie's birthday today! She's two years old. Yep, two years ago I was a sane person who thought Pugs were just weird looking half-dogs. I couldn't understand why my mother had wanted to get one and didn't have a clue how much that dog's puppies were going to change my life.

Sweepie was the biggest, the loudest, the brashest of the pack. She made me laugh all the time. She quickly grew into a little princess. It took until she was about six months old for us to become inseperable, and moving here this year has made that closeness even worse (better). I never thought I'd have a tiny little, needy dog like Sweepie. But it's true what my mother said two years ago when I kept asking her why she'd ever want such a pathetic creature: she's like the baby I can't have.

This year I bought her a collar. If you don't know, Pug's necks are quite big and they're not really meant to wear collars. Well, they can wear them but you can't then pop a lead onto them and walk them, cos you can damage their necks. For walks Sweepie always wears her harness. But since moving here I've been worried about what would happen if she got out one day and someone found her but didn't think to get her scanned (she has a microchip, you see). I might never see her again. So I wanted a disk for her. Which meant she had to have a collar to hang it off. I spent about an hour in Pets At Home deciding on which was the right one (I'm so sorry, Ray; you know you love me for my indecisivness).

The little madam wasn't that keen on it to start with but now I think she's growing to like it.





Isn't she smug in her new clothes? She thinks she's a big dog now, like Auntie Martha.

So, there you go. I am now a crazy Pug lady. I love you, baby: Happy Birthday!

Labels: birthday, mammy, martha, photos, presents, puppies, ray, shopping, sweepie

by Ys | COMMENTS? 4 | permalink |

I had a visit from Poopy-Wednesday yesterday. She was exhausting. She's hit a very naughty stage. When she was quiet it was great but when she started running round again I suddenly remembered why I like to see the puppies go to new homes when they hit this age ;) Here's some photos from the day, if you want to see some dog-only pictures :)

Last night I found a bargain chair! You know how I said I wanted my room to have a blue colour-scheme? Well, I don't have a chair for my desk, cos the one I used to use at home was part of a set that belonged to Mammy and Daddy. So since we've moved in I've not been able to sit at my desk. So when I found a blue chair for only eight-pounds I just knew I had to get it! It's this one - but blue. Look at how happy my desk looks now:



It's really comfortable, too. I thought it would be quite nasty, what with the cheap price, but it's very nice, and it encourages me to sit correctly cos it has a proper straight back to it. Usually I just slump in chairs and get a really bad back. So it's cheap, comfortable, kind to my back, and blue! Perfect!

I used it today for the first time. Because today I started back writing, after an absence of... four months. I always knew I'd be taking about two months off to look after the pups, but then we moved as well and it's taken this long to settle and actually find the time and adjust my routine. I can't tell you how good it was to get back to it. I feel complete again. I'm working on the fourth volume of Soul Mates, which is my baby. "Soul Mates" is what got me writing good, got me writing regularly and just made me realise that writing is what I want to do. So I'm also calling the new blue chair a good luck charm been as it all went so well :)

Labels: daddy, dogs, house stuff, life, mammy, photos, puppies, soul mates, writing

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

This is what Ray got me for Valentines Day. I call her Victoria, simply because that's what it said her name was on the box:



I had to re-arrange my room to give her pride and place, of course ;) The date we went on was great. It feels like it's been months and months since we last went out alone together - other than to B&Q to get him stuff for work. The chips were great, the harbour was quiet, and we just put the radio on and lay together quietly. It was perfect. The naughty stuff came later, in between checking on my sickly Pug. We continued those celebrations through the weekend actually ;) I think I spent most of Sunday just watching him while he painted a cabinet and cooked food, falling in love again and again.

Sweepie is doing heaps better now. She's got an icky scar, which makes me go funny, but the stitches should be out later this week. She had some bleeding after the op', which continued through for another twenty-four hours so I had to keep a very close eye on her. She's bouncing around trying to play with Martha all the time now so I think it's safe to say she's on the mend.

I get to have my first Smear Test today. I can't say I'm looking forward to it. Why do us women have to be put through these ordeals? I just hope it doesn't hurt. Once that's done I was hoping to buy myself a cake as a reward for being brave but Ray had an accident with a cupboard in work so we have to pay out £150 so money is a bit tight. Maybe I can find a cheap cake somewhere...

Labels: doctors, photos, ray, sweepie, valentines day, vets

by Ys | COMMENTS? 3 | permalink |

The weather has still been really nice and warm... until today. Typical that it waits 'til Valentines Day to drop so cold, especially considering Ray has planned for us to eat chips on the beach tonight - we're skint so it's like our version of a meal out ;) We haven't exchanged presents yet. Partly because I was half-unconscious this morning (how he gets up at 7 every morning I'll never know; I got up at 7 yesterday, too, cos Wednesday came over for the day so I am exhausted now), and partly because the presents I've ordered for him haven't turned up yet - even though I ordered them over a week ago! I'm not impressed at all cos now he's got to have late Valentines presents and then there'll be no point, will there? Grr.

I have no idea what he's got me. I have a feeling he'll upstage me cos he's really surprising me with stuff today. Firstly, the card this morning had an adorable message in it, which just made me want to cry - really made my message look like the pits hehe, not quite but almost ;) And then I got a big surprise:



I've never had flowers delivered to my door before. It was very exciting actually. And I always love getting flowers. I really hadn't been expecting any cos, well, flowers are pretty expensive at this time of year, aren't they? So that was just lovely. He's obviously going to upstage me tonight cos he actually has presents for me whereas mine aren't even here ;)

Want to see my new bookcase? Isn't it lovely?



It was a gift from Mammy :) And then we also got two steamers (one electric, one not) from Ray's gran and mother, and some bed sheets too, which are so, so pretty. I feel very, very spoilt this week.

Today has had its downside, though. Sweepie went to be spayed today. That was very stressful indeed. But Mammy rang about half an hour ago and assured me she's fine - grumpy but absolutely fine. She'll be coming home the same time I will be after my chips - Ray and I wanted to make sure we were both back home by the time she was getting back cos she's going to need a lot of TLC. Martha has had some bad news today. They found out she has a heart murmur and a crumbling spine (sorry can't find a link for what that exactly is). Mammy assures us it's not as bad as it sounds and it's actually a good thing we know cos now she can have medication and could quite possibly revert back to her usual hyperactive self. But we're all hoping her calm mood is more from maturity and not illness so she'll remain calm.

They'll be both home again tonight so we can nurse them better. It's been horrible here without them both. Way too quiet. We went shopping and came home to no accusing glances and sniffs as to where we'd been and why we'd think to go out without them.

I'll end with some photos from the sunny weekend that just passed: I Can't Wait 'Til Summer.

EDIT: so blogger wouldn't let me update - I tried for ages. To update on the news: my Valentines Day chips in the car date was so, so good. It was like we fell into a time void. We got home to meet Sweepie and she was very poorly and sad. I had to check on her all night and although there was some bleeding the next day she's absolutely fine now :) Ray bought me a really pretty jewellry-holder-thing (I'll get pictures), and he says I have another present on it's way as well, which is very intriguing.

... Have a new layout as well ;)

Labels: illness, love, mammy, martha, photos, presents, ray, sweepie, valentines day

by Ys | COMMENTS? 1 | permalink |

Sorry for not posting earlier. I was feeling really ill last week and by the time Thursday rolled by I just kind of gave up and moped on the sofa playing Halo. I'm on the mend now, though, and am hoping I will fully recover very soon. I should really have worked on the new layout but I have so many ideas that I just don't know where to start yet. I'll hopefully get one up within the week but don't hold me to that deadline cos I find I'm on the computer a lot less since I've moved. It's the sudden warm weather's fault. I've spent the entire weekend sitting out the back, enjoying the sun, pretending it's summer. It's been amazingly lovely and warm this weekend here in Wales. I love the sun.

This is the poster for the new Narnia film:



It looks very pretty. I have no idea who the boy is, though. Anyone know what's meant to happen in this one? It says it's not out 'til May so that leaves plenty of time to save up. Hehehe. I'm not kidding, though. We have to save for everything now. Because we went out to the gig and the pub last week we weren't able to go out this week. Then it's Valentines Day this week so we won't be able to afford to go out again. Hehehe. It's all totally worth it, though. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I'd gladly never go out pubbing again if it meant I got to keep this house and this wonderful new lifestyle I have here. I really can't wait 'til summer: it's going to be beautiful here.

This has been a bit of a pointless entry, hasn't it? Nothing has happened cos I've just been ill and moping. This week will be better. I hope ;)

Labels: blogging, films, halo, house stuff, illness, layout, life, money, narnia,