Sad news

It is with a heavy heart that I have to write and tell you that Martha went over the rainbow bridge on Monday 8th August.
She had a short battle with cancer.
Just a month short of her 15th birthday, we miss her daily and love her lots.

Run free sweet girl xxxx

New home woes!

It's Saturday the 14th of May and I'm sat in my bedroom reading my emails as this is the only place I can get a tiny bit of 3G when up pops an email saying

Well I run down stairs to see if there is a delivery note through the door as I've not heard the bell or a knock.
No note , no sign of a van in the distance.
I ring the customer information line after searching their website to get through to an automated service that takes me four separate attempts to navigate
"I'm sorry we didn't recognise that number" hangs up.
"I'm sorry we didn't recognise that number" hangs up...etc etc
On attempt five I refuse to give the automatic women any information and finally speak to somebody. She informs me that she will communicate with the depot and they will ask the driver to REdeliver!

So it's Saturday I have the day to myself because my husband, youngest and two friends have gone to Wembley to watch the women's FA cup final and my eldest is at a birthday party.
I'm sat in the living room watching out the window like a hawk, mobile by my side in case it rings.
Now I know that my house is brand new and hard to find but after eight weeks it's beginning to really pee me off.

On Wednesday we were finally graced by the presence of a BT openreach engineer he connected up the fibre optic thingimmyjigs from the front of the house to the inside of the house so hopefully when we have two green lights we can ring BT and arrange to be connected back to the real world!!
Not having any broadband or telephone connection for the last 8 weeks has been 'fun' you find yourself slowly weened of Facebook,Twitter and Instagram but when you realise that you now live in Cheshire's version of the Bermuda Triangle and 3G and 4G signals are a rarity you start to get a bit ratty. I have also realised that I have a rubbish contract with EE and am constantly using up my data.
This results in not being able to read emails, receive iMessages, connect to what's app messages and apparently receive calls!!!
I've been transported to the 80s.
I can thankfully use the internet at work and I have been able to check bank balances, update change of addresses, order online shopping etc in my lunch hour and even, in the case of getting Jacks birthday presents, go in at the weekend!!
When moving into a new build it is apparently the new home owners responsibility to register the address with the Royal Mail (I don't believe that) so prior to our move I rang the number provided and informed them I would be moving in, I was told it would take a couple of days to update on various systems but all seemed OK.
I also rang my local council to order my bins after a number of calls to various people who told me different information I was told my bins had been order and would be left in my back garden.
They weren't.
Another call after moving in, to a couple of different people and they finally arrived delivered to my front door.
I promptly filled these bins as I'm sure you can imagine a family of four would do on any normal week never mind a house move on top and put them out on my bin day.
The site manager said he saw the bin men and would inform them about my bins.
I also saw said bin men at lunchtime and spoke to them in the street informing him of my location and full black bin, he told me oh yes I've just emptied that one.
Nope.
I get to the house, bin is full.
On returning to work I see the recycling bin men and have same conversation about full bins.
They found them and emptied them so I ring the council, have a little chat, yes I'm in a new build, no I registered the address over a month ago, the recycling guys managed to find me, the delivery driver managed to find me, my bin is full and you didn't empty it.
Drivers notes say it wasn't out, was it in designated area?
Where is my designated area? (It was at the end of my drive.)
I don't know.
I don't either.
We will send you out some purple bags to put your rubbish in as we won't be collecting it until the next black bin day.
Ok fair enough.
These bags never arrived but a lady from this council did, she found my house and she decided where my designated area was!
So I asked for the bags, she didn't have them, they didn't come in the post and I will get to that!!
With a full black bin and an empty green bin because I haven't needed to use it yet I decide to bag up my household waste and store it in the green bin, I won't put it out on Wednesday, but I do put my recycling boxes at the end of the drive in my newly designated area.
On Wednesday afternoon I pick up my empty recycling boxes from said designated area and walk up to the house and notice a sticker on my green bin which has been sat by the garden gate all day minding its own business happily looking after my extra household rubbish.
This sticker reads that they were unable to empty it as it contained the incorrect waste!!!!
I HADN'T PUT IT OUT.
IT WASN'T IN THE DESIGNATED AREA.
THEY HAD COME UP TO THE HOUSE AND STUCK A STICKER ON IT!!!!

This brings me to the post situation, now I know in this day and age we rarely get much of it but having moved house I though we might get a bit, new utility account stuff etc and also Jack had his 10th birthday 3 weeks after the move so that meant cards.
So after 2 weeks of nothing I popped to the local sorting office and informed them about my situation and address a couple of minutes later he returns with a handful of post, fair enough early days teething problems etc he knows we're in now, I even draw him a little map, post then arrives with postman scribbles on envelope indicating where we are in relation to other houses, nice, joined up thinking, like it. I even post myself a sealed envelope with a message to them, this arrives, the message must be getting through.

Jacks birthday arrives, post doesn't.

I go into town, visit sorting office, same man, he trots off comes back with pile of post, I've gone armed with a map from the David Wilson Site office with road labels and stars and arrows 'we are here'.
Post comes in dribs and drabs, we don't get much!

Jack decides he wants a bank account for his birthday money and Tommy wants a more grown up one too so we go and open accounts, Tommy will be receiving a card and PIN number through the post.
NO POST...
I go into town, visit sorting office, same man, he trots off ...

Thinking I've conquered this one I send of my car log book and driving licence...they're not back yet!

It's beyond frustrating when there are services that just say ok and the next thing you know they're ringing the doorbell.
Sky found us and installed our sky dish.
The window cleaner found us before we moved - slightly stalker like!
The aerial man found us.

Ocado have a phone line and listened to me and wrote down my address manually because even though Royal Mail told me it would update in a few days, eight weeks on it still hasn't, the delivery driver then rang me and asked for directions and on top of that when he had found me he updated HIS notes directing future Ocado drivers so last night my shopping arrived -early- to my front door.

I'm still sat waiting for Yodel to deliver my coffee table on a Saturday because I'm in with nothing to do, unfortunately I'm to scared to turn the Hoover on in case he's half way up the road whispering my name and emailing me to tell me I'm not in.

Update!

Hello to you, long (long) time no blog!
So just a quick update, still loving the Cheshire life, the boys have settled into school and the dog is going strong, she will be 15 this year!
Well I don't like a post without a photo and what a treat I have for you, if you read my very early genealogy post you'll be aware that we (my mum) had sadly lost the photo she had of her dad in his RAF uniform...drum roll... I went to visit her in the summer and whilst looking through and old album we found it, stuck between two pages in an album she'd searched before!!

Aubrey Belcher Lund

You can see my earlier blog here:
Genealogy Post

Hello Cheshire!

Hello remember me!

Well quite a lot has happened since I last wrote.

At the end of May we moved up the M6 from Birmingham to Cheshire to live here in Northwich.

We timed the move to coincide with the Whitsun holiday and the end of Sat's for Tommy.
Moving day arrived and so did the rain, walking up and down a wet lorry ramp is not fun, we resembled penguins carrying their young!
It was so wet that the washing machine went up and down the motorway twice as nobody fancied taking it off the truck and ending up underneath it!
Having said that it was a successful move and we unpacked and settled in really well,

we had a 'week off' to acclimatise, find our feet, the shops, the park etc and then the boys started their new schools.

All smiles.

They really were thrown in at the deep end, Jack had a week at school then three days in Llandudno! Although heart wrenching as he'd never been away from home before it was probably the best thing he could've done and wow I will never forget the hug I had when he got home.

We had a week of 'normality' before Tommy was off to London for three days! I was contemplating fitting a revolving door.

They have fully embraced all the activities 'thrown' at them and have truly benefited from all.

star of the week

off to LLandudno

and London

bike it

world cup festival

world cup festival

artisan market

sports week

loom bands

school fete

school fete

selfies by the sea

Old Trafford

Soccer Aid

Furey Wood

writer of the week

Jack took us to Llandudno

Martha

Great Orm

Great Orm fossils

lots of walks

school play

end of school!

Tommys Last day at Juniors

New Brighton

National Football Museum

Anfield

Everton

Old friends visiting

new teams

family visits

Its been a busy few months I even managed to squeeze in a 40th birthday and in two weeks time Tommy starts high school...

*reaches for paper bag and breathes in and out slowly*

London Marathon Tomorrow!

(Taken from my Facebook post)

On Sunday my other half is running the London marathon for the National Eczema Society. 

I thought I'd let you know why. 

Have you ever sat at your desk at school and had the backs of your legs bleed because the horrible old wooden school chairs made you scratch or sat rubbing your fingers together because the chalk from the board made your skin so dry and your teachers would tell you off for scratching, have your friends not wanted to hold your hand in case they caught 'it'

Had your teachers tell you don't scratch, put your cream on then sat on your hands because the cream made them burn. 

Had your heart race because a boy wants to hold your hand but your scared he'll flinch when he does. Taken your clothes off with a shower of dry skin. 

Lay awake at night scratching and scratching and scratching. 

Then watched your own children do the same. Stitched scratch mats to their babygrows then had to peel them out of sticky blood stained pjs. 

Sedated them at night so they can get some peace and rest. Change their milk so many times you're on first name terms with all the health professionals!  Watched them rake at their skin wishing they'd stop but knowing the relief it's giving them. 

I haven't grown out of my eczema and it can flare up at any point. The wooden chairs and chalk boards have been replaced with other obstacles. 

Luckily my boys have but I didn't think they would. I see many adults and children having a sneaky itch and scratch at school I'd like them to know it's ok and there are people out there that understand and care. 

Please share. 

Text MEPK54 to 70070 and donate £amount or online at www.justgiving.com/Paul-Kelsall1

Take one pan...

I'm getting quite good at these bung it all in a pan teas.

So, inspired by 'A Girl called Jack' I thought I'd blog it. 

First chop and fry an onion, add grated carrot and courgette and swede, the courgette was grown by my mum so was delicious, (we'd had two in last nights tea with some homegrown beans, pasta shells and a jar of Aldi tomato and mascarpone sauce.) the swede was left over from a pie I'd made a few days back ( ok, ok last week!) 

Then comes the magic... Open the cans and bung it in. 

In no particular order...

small tin of sweet corn

small tin of chickpeas 

tin of cannellini beans

tin of green lentils 

And a tin of tomatoes

Some passatta 

Two-ish teaspoons of veg stock

Two teaspoons of curry powder 

One teaspoon of garam masala

After tasting a bit I also put in a teaspoon of marmite and a teaspoon of miso. 

I do get a bit George's Marvellous medicine when I'm cooking!

I served it with basmati rice. 

Delicious, I shall freeze the rest and maybe add more stock for a yummy soup. 

The best complement.

Lunch.

I'm going to miss our holiday lunches, the boys have really embraced sandwiches! 

They just aren't the same when they've been wrapped in plastic and left in a corridor for 3 hours. 

And bargain of the day, these baguettes were 29p from Lidl. 

 

Whoops!

I didn't do very well on the blog a day challenge. Sorry.

But I have managed to unsubscribe from a lot of my emails, there have been a few that seem impossible to, but on the whole I now have a 'lighter' inbox.
If only it was easier to unsubscribe from the junk that comes through my front door.

'besöksstol' The Millennium Trilogy. An observation.

No spoilers.

A friend gave 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' by Stieg Larsson to me ages ago and I'd never been able to get my teeth into it, then we went on holiday and 'bingo' I was hooked.

I was two thirds of the way through the first book when it struck me that visitors chair was an odd phrase but thought nothing of it, then on Wednesday I heard Front Row on radio 4 about authors and translating books

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037v4gb

And it made think about the visitors chair again and if what I was reading was as intended etc etc but I didn't want to spoil my own enjoyment of the book so put it out of my mind again. 

I was close to finishing book 1 and my birthday was on Friday so I dropped boulder sized hints to the kids for book 2, they did pick up on them but no book materialised - so off I went to the local charity shops, I picked up the third book in Barnardos for 49p and the second book in Oxfam for £1.09 (ooh and a new bag) 

I'm now very nearly at the end of the second book and there's been lots of people sitting in visitors chairs, so I downloaded the Google translate app and set it up for English to Swedish and put in visitors chair. 

besöksstol

I even went back and forth between a few languages and always got visitor chair. 

I imagined a scenario when an English man/woman was sat with a Swede asking them to explain things, pointing at objects...

What's that?

-Bord-Table

That?

-Thats my chair, Stol. 

Your chair?

-Yes

So that? 

-Um, another chair, a visitors chair, besöksstol. 

Ooh besöksstol I like that. 

Maybe they'd had trouble with visitors and seating etiquette, visitors climbing on the lap of their hosts, so there was a need for visitors chairs?!? 

Who knows. 

I put  besöksstol into Google again and found this...

http://www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/index.php/book-translation-an-insiders-perspective/

Seems I'm not alone!

So when does a stol become a besöksstol and when does a besöksstol become a stol?

And am I a visitor in my own home sat here at my Ikea 'Norden' table on my Ikea 'Gilbert' chairs?

Day 13, 14 and 15!

Eurgh I think I've melted ...

Day 13

Sorry I can't write a film review its toooo hot. Go and watch anything by Pixar they're the best, I like other grown up stuff too but I can't remember in this heat!!!

Day 14

My favourite place - home. 

I just love being at home,I always have you can't beat it, as a teenager when it was all about going out and clubbing etc I still had to go home at some point in the day and 'touch base'. 

Even when we lived in dodgy bed sits and shared house I was happy in my four walls. 

Day 15 

My most cherished belonging has to be Terry my Tiger. 

Thank you I'm off to stick my head in the freezer.