Oh how they fly

It's Sunday evening again! My how they come round so fast! Today's been a nice mix of work and relaxation. I didn't get up until noon and then got up to do some singing practice before heading out to my first rehearsal with Bolton Symphony Orchestra for the Opera74 New Year concert we're doing next Saturday night. I was very impressed with the orchestra, who I've not worked with before. My bits went ok and there are 2 more rehearsals so everything is on track.

This afternoon I've managed to catch up on my sky+'d medical dramas while Andy busied himself in the conservatory which is turning in to a weekend room. We decided not to get a TV in there so it could be used for reading or listening to the radio. It makes a nice change to listen to Radio 4 in there instead of in the car for a change.

Good news, for me anyway, we've finally chosen a carpet for our living room/hall & stairs. We went all the way to St Helen's to find one we liked in the end but it is going to be such a relief to get rid of this threadbare monstrosity we've got now, which has been down since before we moved in. For the last 3 or 4 years we've been meaning to change it and we've been positively encouraging people to spill on it to give us a kick up the bum to get it changed but finally, now everything else in the house has been done, we've got round to it. AMEN! The cat gave his immediate approval to the sample we brought home as he sat on it and refused to move! The next people to borrow that sample will probably find lots of ginger highlights in amongst the pile. He doesn't yet know that the arrival of new stair carpet will men the end of his frenzied carpet clawing attacks on the bottom stair. We'll have to come up with some deterent... hmmm, we'll need some luck on that one.

I told you he was Special!

I took my cat for a booster injection today and happened to point to some dry skin he has on 2 of his paws and whammy, the vet starts pulling out books and getting nurses to pin him down. It looks like Chili may have a rare skin disease. Well, he said it was rare but he'd actually seen another case in the practice earlier this week strangely enough, so not that rare.

Feline Pododermititis!

He's ok though it's not life threatening! More a skin irritation on his paws. Poor Chili!

The Christmas Preparations Begin

Well, today the preparations for christmas have begun for me. I've spent all this afternoon designing our christmas cards. I've taken some photos of Chili and put a santa hat on him in photoshop (because he's not a hat cat and there was no chance of me getting him to actually pose with a hat on! believe me I've tried in the past!). The plan was to then get these printed by one of the number of photo printer/product websites and here are the few I would recommend from past usage.

1. Photobox - this is a great site that I've used for many years. The prints are always of fantastic quality (as long as the pictures you upload to it are of course) and they have an ever expanding range of photo products, including, very reasonably priced photo books, canvas prints, postcards, greetings cards, calendars and diaries and even clothing and home items like cushions.

2. My new favourite is MOO.com. Moo are a fabulous little creative printing company and it was their mini photo cards that initially captured my attention earlier this year. They also have a quickly growing range of photo products: Mini cards (and accessories such as card holders & now the brilliant mini card photoframes, Business cards, Christmas & Holiday cards, Stickers, Postcards, and Notecards. I've always been really impressed with their service. I love their friendly email messages and the fact that they offer some off the shelf designs that are wonderful in themselves.

After checking out both sites I went with Moo for the printing of our christmas cards and I can't wait for them to arrive.

I really like to design my own christmas cards. I used to hand make them when I had more time but It got a little crazy when I was actually having to start making cards in July/August due to the every growing number of people in my life so this year I thought I'd use some my photography instead. I don't know why I didn't think of it before really. I did a photoshoot last weekend for my work collegue and took some pictures of her 2 year old son for the purpose of making christmas cards from and it gave me the idea to do my own.

Here is one of the 4 designs I've gone for... I'll not show them all or you won't get a surprise when you open my cards otherwise!

A Photoshoot with Chili

I realised that I'd not posted any pictures of my beautiful boy Chili lately so i did a quick photoshoot with him last night! What a poser he is.

I think you'll see he'd make a fierce competitor on Britain's Next Top CAT Model! He has quite a repertoire of poses!

What Happened Next

Again I've proved that i'm a very very bad blogger. Much has happened since my last post so I thought i'd explain in pictures. I'm actually only getting this opportunity because i'm at home ill with the flu. But it's not such a chore really as I'm working on my Brand new, beautiful, cute, mini laptop.





The first big thing that happened since I last posted was that I got to see my best friend and I finally got to meet her gorgeous little daughter Ellora. What a beauty!

Then at the begining of August we went to Liz & Chris's wedding down in East Sussex. It was a beautiful day and Liz looked like a film star. We had a great time. Not least because we picked up a brand new car! A mazda MX5 hard top convertible. It arrived the day before the wedding so we drove down south in it. We couldn't have the top down though because weather on the Friday was too grey, thank goodness the clouds parted and the sun shone on Lizzie & Chris's celebrations.

Next, we took a week off work and headed up to the lakes to spend a few days at the Caravan. The weather was pretty changable and we spent many hours relaxing and reading, a nice break from work.

While we were away, Chili took a holiday at Andy's parents house! He seemed to have a relaxing time too, and when we brought him home he sulked for a week.

On the August bank holiday weekend we invited Alex over and on the Sunday we decided to go for Sunday lunch at The Kings Ransom pub in Sale. We used to go there all the time when we lived there and it was great to go back. Plus, this was the first time Alex had had a pub sunday lunch in England! Truely historic!

So, there you have it. We're now in September and we're in the middle of a lot of house alterations so things are a little bit messy here. We've had the kitchen & dining room knocked through and we're having the kitchen units extending next week. The conservatory is on order and planning permission has come through so that should start before the end of the month with any luck. Most life changingly, we now have a dish washer! Oh, my god, how did I ever live without one in the past! Hopefully it will free up lots more time for me to spend on blogging... or maybe i'll always just be a bad blogger!

Chili the Handsome

What a handsome boy :0)

My Hair-Brained Scheme

Ok, a corny title indeed but yes I've finally been to the hairdresser and decided last minute to book an appointment for this lunchtime. I foolishly thought that i'd be able to fit in a 15min drive there, a 45min full wash, cut & blow dry and a 15min drive back in to an hour so i arrived back at work 20 mins late but hey that was good going. I'm going to have a 30 min lunch tomorrow to make up for it though. I'm good like that.

Today I'm actually totally crippled after a trip to the local leisure centre for a session of Body Pump . It really is a great class but I'd forgotten just how much the aftermath hurts. I'm happy though because i've found a gym buddy! Sam from work joined me and enjoyed it so we've decided to go regularly. We are both in pain today. We are finding it terribly difficult to get down stairs. Up is ok as you can always resort to all fours but down is definately not so good. The worst thing is that tomorrow will be even more painful... But hey, we'll have buttocks like J-Lo! Or at least I hope so after all that effort.

I won't mention the fact that when I got home from the gym I ate half an easter egg as I was about to pass out. But hey my new muscular build will soon burn up those calories right?

Anyway, here's my daily picture of Chili. This is appropriate as he's in a very fighty bitey mood again today which usually happens once every 3 days.

Bank Holidays!

It's been a hard month. Work is manic in march and i'm definately ready for this easter break. Four days of rest... or so I thought. Andy had different plans. Oh yes... apparently this weekend will be spent re-arranging the little bedroom and spring cleaning!

Last night the weekend began when we were let out of work a whole 30mins early.
I went "swimming" with TP.... we actually spent most of the time in the jacuzzi but hey, surely having bubbles pummeling your flesh must be an exercise of sorts... at least we managed to convince ourselves that it must be better than sitting chatting in a cafe for instance.

I'm never overly comfortable in jacuzzi's. Whenever i go on my own there is always some overweight guy sat opposite who is clearly only there to loiter in the hot tub and watch people or there is one person who feels the need to start a mundane conversation as they are uncomfortable with silence so at least when you go with a friend you can ignore the other people. We also went in the steam room but it was a short stay... TP found it too claustrophobic and i just don't feel like i'm breathing when the air is hot so after 5 mins we were happy to head for the door. I'm just not made for the pampered lifestyle. I went for a massage last year and could't stop giggling. I had to apologise to the girl as I'm just too ticklish. I need to work on my beauty treatment endurance skills! Hehehe. As we headed home the heavens opened and i drove home in the rain. Yes indeed the bank holiday had started.

Being easter bank holiday i was looking forward to coming home to watch the rugby. It was the Bradford v Leeds derby match last night but we got slaughtered 44-2 and right now, Andy's watching his team Wigan get murdered in their traditional good friday derby with St Helen's. 22-0 and it's not half time yet! D'oh! Someones going to be grumpy for the rest of the day but Ifeel a little better in the knowledge that it's not just my team who's rubbish this season! If wigan win then i'll be in for some jibbing by Andy's dad tomorrow and I'm mot in the mood ;o)

I spent this morning taking pictures of Chili. He was in a very playful mood and has been pouncing on anything that moves and that usually means me or Andy... I have some photos of this savagery just incase you don't believe me that a cat so cute could be such a monster.

Here he is savaging my foot. He doesn't like these fluffy socks for some reason :0)


Anyway, i'd better get on with some housework... the joys of domestic bliss!

Man Vs Cat

I'm sat here on my couch, having cooked a meal and done some daily chores and the two males members of the house are laid flat out in front of the fire.

It got me thinking... there are many similarities between my husband and my cat!

CAT Vs MAN!

Both rely on me for food and make noises at me when they want feeding. (Shame I can't appease my husband with a digital food dispenser).

Both take up slightly too much room in bed!

They both love a bit of attention... the cat likes his ears stroking and my husband likes his ego stroking!

Neither of them like losing at games... and both love hunting/killing games... (I've recently become a PS3 widow!)

They both run at the sight of a hoover or at the thought of going near a sink.

Both love lying flat out in front of the fire and this is what they are doing right now.

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Here is a picture of one of my boys. He's called Chilli and here he is checking his catbook page... He nearly has as many friends as me!