Mr C drew my attention to this list on the BBC News website over dinner this evening. With all the news of doom and gloom that seems to be filling the pages in every newspaper I think it's true that many of us are becoming more anxious and stressed than we used to, or than is good for us. This list contains ten things that all of us should try to do to reduce our anxiety levels. When I set up this blog my plan (which I think I carry out) is to write about the things that make me smile. One thing that made me smile about this particular article (as well as the ... read more
Fabulous!
Anjie over at pom pom emporium has very kindly presented my with this rather fabulous blog award.Now I have to admit that I don't normally go in for these blog award things, but I particularly liked this one for two, very shallow reasons: I get to tell you about five things that I'm "addicted" to and that woman in the picture above just looks kinda stylish in a way that I really like at the momet.So, here are my five, and surprise, surprise they're all things that I blog about! Baking - I do have to admit to having rather a sweet tooth and these ... read more
Sitting in the dark
I was planning a nice long blog post tonight, complete with photos. The powers that be are working against me though as Mr C and I are currently sat here in a candle lit room listening to a battery powered radio. When we arrived back home after meeting up with my parents we found a substantial part of St Albans in darkness due to a power cut. Talking to a local friend, who still has power, it seems that there was a strange blip to their supply just over an hour ago (8.15pm) and we guess that is related to this. The electricity company reckons we should be back on by 11.30pm but that ruins my ... read more
Britain by train
This week I seem to have been sending most of my time on trains, or in meetings. Out of the five working days this week I have only been in London for one, and am again elsewhere tomorrow. I often have meetings away from my main office, but not normally so many in a week. Being constantly on the go is very tiring in itself and hence I decided to travel everywhere by train this week, rather than driving as I often do (mainly as to save time admittedly). As well as the obvious carbon benefit over driving I do find that there are many other advantages and disadvantages compared to just ... read more
Remember that there’s more to life…
... than the day job. I've had a difficult couple of days at work and it can be all too easy to let this sort of thing get me down. This time I"m trying to fight back though and rise above everything that's going on. The weather here in the UK seems to have turned in the last 24 hours. As I left my office (far too late) this evening the wind blew my umbrella inside out and broke one of the struts. Back in St Albans walking home from the station I had no option but to brave the elements. It felt fantastic though. It was still reasonably warm, but with a fresh edge to the ... read more
Garden planning
It's been a week of form filling, building societies and Mr C's birthday! The house is still progressing with solicitors involved and lots of paperwork being generated. This also means that we're starting to spend money, so fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong from here. Mr C and I have been to visit a couple of building societies about mortgages. We're waiting for one final piece of information from one and then we should be able to decide once and for all as to which we are going with. They will then need to get the survey done - fingers crossed that it won't ... read more
Home and woops…
I feel like I come here quite often at the beginning of a weekend to apologies for a lack of posts within the week. This may be a bit of a deja vu for some readers, but this time I have a damn good excuse (well at least I think so).On Thursday Mr C and I finally had an offer accepted on a house that we want to buy! This is the fourth house that we've tried to buy in the last year and to say that I am excited is an understatement!I know that there is still so, so much that may go wrong with this planned purchase but please indulge me on this for a little while and then I'll try and keep ... read more
Home sweet home
Mr C and I have spent the weekend trying to find a new home. In two days we've looked at eight houses in St Albans and driven round checking a few more out from the outside. We've been looking now for eighteen months and to be honest we're getting rather tired. Somehow when it comes to actually seeing the houses Mr C really enjoys it, but after a couple I start to feel rather weary. By the end of yesterday I was shattered.The good news is that we do seem to have found a couple that we like the look of. We obviously need to go back and look at them again, but it does at least tell ... read more
Wintery weekend
This is the wintery scene that greeted me as I left home to go to work on Friday morning. Walking to St Albans station was like walking through a blizzard - I was wearing wellies and my ski jacket and was white with snow when I reached the station. There the staff were advising us not to venture into London as there could be no guarantees that we'd actually get home again. I pressed on though and actually felt quite silly by the time I got into London as there everything was just grey and miserable looking. My colleagues had a good laugh though when I appeared in the office dressed for ... read more
Trip round Europe
Sorry that I've not been here blogging for the last week. Last week was incredibly busy, but then Mr C and I had a nice, peaceful weekend away planned. We flew out to Vienna last Friday and had a great weekend exploring the city. The slight problem came on Monday. After watching the news in our hotel room that morning there was no surprise when we turned up at the airport to find that our flight back to London was cancelled. In fact, no flights left Austria for London at all that day due to the snow back home!We'd flown with Easyjet and the truth behind those cheap flights is that if ... read more