On Saturday night Mr C and I opened the bubbles to celebrate: on Friday we finally sold our flat! We are now officially out of the housing market and watching the daily economic turmoil around us we couldn't be happier.We had big plans whilst we were on honeymoon earlier this year that we'd come home, sell our flat and buy somewhere bigger so that could think about the next step of being able to start a family. Unfortunately reading newspapers on the plane back made us realise that the economic situation had changed somewhat in the month we'd been away and things weren't going ... read more
Charity Shop Treasure
I love poking around the charity shops and trying to find a bargain, and Saturday was a pretty successful day in that regard. The bundle of goodies above came in at a grand total of £3.98! Two mixed bags of yarn, an embroidery hoop and a brand new copy of Alexander McCall Smith's Love Over Scotland (still with an original £6.99 price sticker on it). A pretty good haul of treasure for just an hour or so of hunting! ... read more
Time flies when you’re busy
I'm not too sure where time is going to at the moment. So much seems to have happened since the weekend, in addition to two full days at work! Mr C and I are in the middle of selling our flat at the moment. Sadly, the current credit crunch means that we're unable to buy our dream home in which to start a family and instead we're taking the slight different move of renting our flat back from the people who are buying it from us. We figure that this should leave us in a better position to rejoin the housing ladder once everything is sorted. This means that there's ... read more
Snow!
I can't quite believe it - 29 October and we had snow! Mr C and I went out this evening to the St Albans Blog meet-up tonight and we had to trudge through snow to get there and back again. I certainly wasn't expecting that in October! ... read more
Weekend with friends
Mr C and I have come back from spending a fantastic weekend with our friends C and P who live in Hampshire. It was great being able to spend time with friends (H and D also joining us down there for the weekend) and reminded me of just how important these friends are. On Saturday we were treated by fantastic weather and spent the afternoon outdoors. As we don't have garden ourselves eating lunch outside is quite a novelty. Time was also spent collecting apples from the many fruit trees in their garden. C's plans for apple chutney should certainly be met - although if she uses all ... read more
Weekend plans
Today we're heading to see friends who live in the countryside. I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to get away for a couple of days and spend quality time with people that I care about and don't get to see often enough.Enjoy your weekend. ... read more
Mr C’s Christmas Track Day
Back before last Christmas I had the usual problem of not knowing what to buy Mr C as a festive gift. Whenever I ask him for ideas for gifts he always comes out with the same answer - "A Porsche please!" Faced with this usual dilemma I went to google for some ideas. One thing that jumped out at me as a possibility was a driving experience and I was lucky enough to find a special offer with Drivers' Dream Days for a Porsche vs Ferrari Experience.Today Mr C and I headed up to Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground near Lutterworth in Leicestershire for him to ... read more
Pizza for supper
Mr C and I are rather caught up at the moment in trying to buy a house. With the current "credit crunch" situation here in the UK, it is far from the best time to be trying to do this. We've been wanting to take the next step in the housing ladder for a while now to allow us to start thinking about a family a bit further down the line. It's not easy though and the last week in particular has been quite stressful.We finally got to put an offer in on a place today though. The first offer was rejected (not unexpectedly) and we're currently waiting to hear back on our revised ... read more
Rain, rain, go away…
I know that lots of rain is good for some things but this is getting silly. Once again this morning I was faced with requiring an umbrella to get to the station. I don't normally mind a bit of rain, but it's August and it seems to have been raining for weeks! When I got home from work the other evening it was so wet and wild outside that it felt like November! I even had to put the heating on for a bit. When I next put clean sheets on the bed I'm planning to put the winter duvet back on. I'm not asking for hosepipe ban conditions, but a bit of sun for a few consecutive days ... read more
Sunflowers
After being away with work it was great to get home on Monday night and even better to be welcomed by the sight of these wonderful sunflowers (and the smell of a Waitrose curry in the oven!) Here we are in the middle of quite a miserable summer (when I looked out of the window yesterday evening it looked more like November than August) and yet the fantastic warm yellow colour just looks so cheerful and bright. They've certainly made me smile - thank you Mr C! ... read more