I am feeling a little sad tonight.

My very dear friend died suddenly last week and tomorrow is the funeral. It was a complete shock. He wasn't ill or anything. He just sat down to watch the telly and died in the chair. He was 51. I think it was a heart problem that showed up at the post mortum. So, so sad and what a waste. He was in his prime. Very high profile job, always here there and everywhere. I got so used to turning on the TV or radio and there he was....OK so he wasn't a soap star or whatever but he worked in an environment that sometimes put him in the limelight. I would text him and say "I've just seen you/heard you again...." and he would text back some very funny reply. I shall miss that. I have known him for about 30 years...he was part of the family too. Always there having a cuppa and a chat.

Kinda of brings it home that I now seem to be entering that age where my friends are starting to get ill. I know myself that age is starting to catch up with me in a physical way but mentally I am still 21 deep down inside. I have no worries about getting old....age is just a number. I do have a huge problem with getting ill as I get older. We have all heard the stories of older people and how they get treated in hospitals etc. That scares me. My old nan was 103 when she died. She had bad fall and had to have a hip replaced at the grand old age of 99. We didn't have the foggiest she was that age. We all thought she was about 90. She got her telegram from the Queen though Very proud of that she was. It went in a box along with all the replies from the letters she had written to 10 Downing Street!!

Oooh, I've had a right old ramble tonight haven't I?!?!

*Groan*

*Moan*

*Grrrr.....*

Yep it was back to work today and I had been away since 4am worrying about it! Oh well, there I was, back at the helm of it all. Had a new girl start in the class today and that always causes lots of chatting and excitement. She seems a nice girl so I am hoping she will be happy.

As I was waiting by the cloakroom to welcome the class back one of my lovely little boys come running up to me with his hands over his ears. I was worried if he had hurt himself and asked him if he was ok, to which he jumped up and down and shouted at me "surprise" and removed his hands from his ears. Bless him!!! He had been for an operation to have his ears pinned back during half term!! Oh my goodness, it was such a surprise and I promptly burst into tears This lovely boy has been the subject of some really nasty name calling etc right since Reception class and at last he had got those ears sorted out. I was delighted for him, hence the tears! Do you know what though? He looked so different! I remember the first time I ever met him. It was when he started Reception class. I will never forget his wondeful freckles and his ears....and now, those lovely ears have gone forever!

I have felt all silly and glowy inside today as I have been so pleased for him to be so happy!

Sundays are always an odd day for me. Part of me says that Sundays should be the day of rest, a good old Sunday roast, a long walk with the dog with the family in tow and then to collapse in the evening with a nice cuppa and a sandwich made from the lovely joint of meat we had earlier. In reality, Sundays are always a mad rush to make sure the school uniforms are washed, ironed and ready, the beds have been changed and the house has been given a good top to toe going over with the duster and hoover. There is always a general feel of gloom and doom descending as the evening wears on at the thought of work the next day.

Today I am feeling that I have had a good half term but boy where did it go? I think it whizzed past while I wasn't looking. The week seemed to go so fast and all those things I promised myself I would do....well, yes, you guessed, I didn't do any of them!

The promised visit to the Tate Modern....nope!
A walk along the beach....nope!
The long awaited visit to the Royal Acadamy of Art with a friend....nope!
Afternoon tea in Fortnums after the visit to the RA....nope!

I really do need to get my self into gear

Bloggers block? Who said that a few days ago?? I'm on a roll now....

You know somedays everything kind of gets to you? Well, today is that kind of day.

The man in the petrol station made me want to shout at him. Well, actually I did shout at him! This petrol station is not one I like. You know you tend to visit one you like because the people who work in there are pleasant and polite? Well this one has workers with none of those qualities and if I can help it I don't go in there EVER! They drive me mad as they always have to snatch your cheque card out of your hand and put it into the chip and pin machine. Why!!!! I thought the reason for the chip and pin was so that you didn't take your eyes off your card....but oh no, they have to do it for you. As much as they try to take the card off me I hang onto it for dear life. Actually, thinking about I must seem really pathetic but I am on a mission now with them. After filling the car up I went in to pay and asked for a car wash. They have a price list advertising a special 4x4 car wash....I asked for one of those. The guy had obviously never sold one before and asked me what I meant! He read the board and told me it was the same as the normal car wash. So, me being used to their silliness in this petrol station asked why they advertised it as a 4x4 wash. He couldn't say! He told me they were not selling them anymore....great way to say he had no idea of what I was on about. By now there was a rather large queue despite me telling him not worry and could he just serve me! Oh no, he just had to argue the fact that the car wash was the same as the 4x4 wash...I was past caring now and was rapidly loosing the will to live.

Why do I keep going to this petrol station I ask myself everytime I drive out of it. There is always a loooooong queue of people wanting to pay, always a queue right out onto the road of people wanting to get in there and fill up...caused by the long line of people wanting to pay!!!!!

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!

Tescos or Asda for filling up the next time I think......

Following on from the sleepover I have done lots of thinking about how children are these days. I know I was certainly told to always say thank you etc but it seems that the youth of today don't know how to say thank you. My son has always been told to be polite and say thank you and thankfully I always get parents telling me how polite he is. Thank heavens!

The boys who stayed never once asked me to speak to their parents to confirm where they were. This was despite me saying I should talk to their parents. No way would my son stay anywhere without me first talking to a parent and confirming it was OK for him to stay over or indeed that he was staying there. Don't parents care where their 15 year olds are? Oddly enough I don't think they can be too bothered! Isn't it odd?!

When the boys went home not one of them thanked us for letting them stay, feeding or watering them. They just went, not so much as a bye. Again, I find this odd!

Am I just being a bit too old fashioned or do I care about my son and what he is up to?

At precisely 11am yesterday 3 hormonal 15 year olds arrived complete with backpacks and heaven only knows what inside. I wasn't expecting anyone until at least 5pm so my being stressed out started early. The boys all decamped, loudly, up to my sons bedroom and there the dreaded sleepover started He has had one friend at a time to stay over lots of times but never 3 others all at the same time. I must be bonkers!

The shopping list was never ending. Pizzas, oven chips, crisps, chicken nuggets, chocolate, biscuits, yoghurts, etc, etc. My son had given me a shopping list as long as my arm and while I was in Asda there were plenty of phone calls to check up and make sure all items were purchased. I didn't dare go home without a thing!

The afternoon got louder and louder....they were playing on the Wii so I guess that made for more noise from all the jumping about they did. Great! I think as this will surely make them all tired and go to bed early...won't it? Wrong! After they were fed and watered they caused more chaos by deciding to use my sons Tai Kwondo protective suit to bash each other silly...that will wear them out won't it? Wrong! So the night went on......

Hubby went to bed exhausted about midnight but I wasn't tired so sat up reading...or trying to! By this time they had all taken over the living room, Wii et all. The music got louder, the screaming and laughing got louder so mum decided to creep down and see what was going on. Oh my goodness, there was a full scale party going on! I decided it was time to go to bed and try to sleep.

Sleep? Nah, how can you sleep with all that going on? The hours ticked by, the sky eventually got lighter and the dog wanted his morning constitutional. Hubby got up and much to our shock the boys were all still wide awake...and they asked to go up the fields too! So off they all went. They returned hungry so were fed an nice English breakfast and watered with me hoping they would go home as I just wanted my bed. Wrong! It is now 12.30pm and I have just kicked them all out and told my son to go to bed and get some sleep. Just as well I think as a war was starting to break out as they were all tied and ratty.

I have cleared up the mess and now am going to bed for an hours sleep. I think I deserve it......it will be along time before there is another sleepover like again in this house! I'm exhausted!!

Hmmmm.....I can't put my finger on it but it seems that all is not well here in Blogger Land. Ellie can't seem to find the time to blog, Usky is wondering where everyone is....I've lost my mojo too and can't seem to find anything remotely interesting or funny to write. I suppose that's called Bloggers Block eh? Well, whatever it's called, I have it!

Is it half term? Some places had half term last week, others are having it this week....can we blame the fact that parents may be fighting the urge to lock themselves in the airing cupboard away from the screaming children? Or maybe, just maybe, families have gone on holiday for half term?

Let's just all sit in a circle, holding hands and repeat after me "I love blogging! I love blogging! I love blogging...."

Hasn't it been beautiful today? Here in Windowsill Bay the sun has shone brightly all day but I will say it's been a tad parky too.

Hubby and I decided on a nice loooooong walk with the dog this afternoon. We went to the local country park that has miles of lovely woody walks. There is a lake that the dog loves to swim in too. The lake sadly was iced over....something I can't remember seeing before so it must have been cold. The dog didn't seem to worried about swimming today or not and decided that he would give it a miss today. He must have known how cold it would have been.

We were walking behind a group of what we now know to be dog owners with a dog trainer. I have never laughed so much! The trainer was hysterical. He was wearing a shooting jacket with the name of his training "school" and his mobile phone number stitched on. He felt very special I think. He walked around with an air of "I'm in charge" about him and just bellowed at the dog owners with him. One poor couple were soooo humilitated by him...I felt so sad for them. They had a lovely little puppy with them but the pup just wasn't going to play the trainers game. Every time the poor owners passed me they grimmaced as the trainer shouted instructions at them. Needless to say the pup took no notice what so ever!!! Typical!

Hubby and myself had now sat ourselves down as we wanted to watch the "training" going on. I told the pups owners to get some chopped chicked in their pockets or some liver cake.....the dog would love them forever and always do as he was told if he knew what the reward was. Our dog was mesmerised by liver cake...it was magical!

We watched the sun start to set and what a beautiful evening it was. Not as nice as some others we have seen this week but beautiful all the same.

So here it is, Valentines Day yet again!

I will admit to forgetting to get hubby a card Oooh dear, so seeing as I needed petrol I hoped the petrol station would sell cards. Oooh yes they did indeed. Now the card I picked up was a plain old boring card with the obligitory hearts and mushiness on and I was met with "you do realise this card costs £4.99 don't you?". Mean as it may sound I didn't buy the card. Now hubby knows that I have the memory of a gnat so he wasn't too shocked to see I had forgotten the card but, I had got him a pressie. A jar of the newest special edition Marmite made with champagne. Guess who got me a jar of the very same? Yep, my hubsband. Talk about knowing each other very well eh! So now we have 2 jars of the champagne Marmite and due to me being a bit of a squirrel I have 2 jars of the Guinness edition and a jar of the original Marmite in the cupboard too.

While I was fighting with the photocopier at work today and getting rather cross with it there was a familiar voice asking for a very large bunch of flowers to be taken up to my classroom. Hubby!!! Bless him, he had been and got 12 beautiful red roses for me too!

So how did you all get on today? Did you all have to fight the postman off as he tried to post all those cards through the letterbox?? I got a text from a friend telling me that 2 dozen roses were on sale at Canary Wharf today for the grand sum of £196 Goodness me

Today was perfect for gardening. I have a project on the go with my garden. It is the size of a postage stamp but I have plans for it. When we first got here the garden was paved over and had the biggest greenhouse in the world at the end of it. Needless to say it took us a week and five skips to get rid of everything. We were left with a waste land. I then got lots of wonderful things like manure etc to dig into the earth to enrich it and then planted a few random things to make it look a little bit interesting.

10 years later the garden has become a mess so I have now decided it's time to demolish it and start again. I am keeping the climing rose, wisteria, jasmine and hydrangea. So after very careful hacking about the garden is looking very bare. About 6 years ago I planted a twisted willow that was the size of a pencil....it was (notice I said was!) 45ft tall and taking over the postage stamp. After my husband attacked it with an electric saw thingie and cut it down the garden has become so much bigger.

Today I decided the back of the garden was going to be my attack target. There is a jasmine that just sits there not doing anything so that got attacked. The ivy that started off as a very small pot plant and has now decided it wants garden domination has been attacked too. It was a thick gardening glove and secateurs and BIG hacking thingies day. Nothing was safe. The recycling bin was full within minutes so I had to go get the neighbours bin and prompty filled that up too!

Ah, that felt better. I even managed to put out the new bird feeders too so that was a job well done. Mr Robin even come to visit and taste the nuts I had put out. So I am a very happy bunny tonight, achey but happy!

I have to own up!

I have just been over to read sminchins blog and see that she owns a DS lite. Me too! I have always been a gadget girl and have always liked computers and all that kind of stuff. I do like to fiddle! I owned a Game Gear many years ago and then went on to upgrade every console I have owned as and when the newer version come out. So you see, it isn't a new thing for me to have to own gadgets. I also think they are a great stress reliever!

Up until around October I was using my sons DS lite and had even got my own games to use in it. Sad eh! Sadly he would leave it laying about not charged, hide it from me and to my annoyance would put all his dirty sticky fingers all over the screens. Enough was enough so I go myself a rather nice silver DS. I was delighted and even, very sadly, got a very nice little bag (a lovely make up bag actually!) to put the charger, games and console in. They were safe too from sticky fingers!

I have all the Brain Training type games and lots of Tetris type games too. I love Touchmaster and that has to be my most loved game closely followed by Word Coach. I see there is a Maths Training game coming out next month so will have to get that one....maths isn't my strongest point you see

Well, I am signing off for now as I need to go and play a game or three....

I woke up this morning with a migraine. Not a good start to a Monday morning! I got up, took a couple of pills, saw the son off to school and climbed back into bed to sleep the headache off. I woke up at noon. I really must have needed the sleep but still the headache was hanging about. So I took yet more pills and collapsed into a heap on the sofa with the dog to keep my tootsies warm.

On the lunchtime news there was an item about today being the day that the most people took off from work during the year..... Oooh dear! That made me feel really guilty. Would everyone at work be thinking I was not really ill and had just taken the day off? OMG, I hope not!

I must admit to loving daytime TV. Well, not all of it but there are a few great programmes. I love Loose Women so that was great to watch that inbetween feeling sorry for myself and then of course there's Flog It! Oh I love that programme soooo much.

So tomorrow will see me back to work and back to the grindstone and back to whatever mess has been left for me to sort out. I hate being off work

Can anyone out there in Blogland tell me what it is about men and remote controls?? Hubby loves to hog the remote. Then the son will guard it closely. So guess who is last in control of the remote unless the house is empty of all men? Yep me! It puzzles me as to why men seem to think the remote is theirs. Why?! Hubby has even been known to take the remote, in his pocket, to the fields when walking the dog rendering me useless and unable to turn the channels over. Now he said it was an accident and that the remote just happened to be in his pocket when he went out and he forgot it....blah, blah, blah! Did I believe that? Course I didn't!

Who has control in your house ladies?? The men? How did I know!