Car Trouble. How much bad luck can we have mechanically. Tend to work on the premise of spending very little on cars as not really interested. The only problem with this is that cheap cars can often be unreliable. To counteract this buy 2 then surely you are hedging your bets and both wont break down at once, surely not! No such luck one fails with an exceedingly expensive part £200 plus before labour. Car will only drive at 15mph. Never mind other car will surely work, but no. This one appears to have no lights. It probably never had lights as its never been used in the dark. So now we can only drive in the daylight or at 15mph!

Lots of things have been written about the female menopause, but little about the male. Does it exist or not. Personally I am sure it does. Its all related to temperament. I am sure that it is a medically researched fact, by me and various friends, that men get grumpier with age. Women don't they get hot flushes but men get mood swings, from slightly grumpy to full on irritable.

I wonder how many people agree.

Not been on here for longer than I can remember. I never seem to have the time to sit and write something meaningful, but I suppose it doesn't have to be meaningful! just mean something to me. Tried Twitter but its not for me. I must be to old to understand the jargon and cannot limit myself to only 2 sentances.

Just been taking 2 generations shopping this morning. Children to loud and cannot seem to concentrate on looking at one thing for more than 1 minute without picking something up and breaking it! You assume when they get past the toddler stage and into teenagers its easier but its not its just different. Anyway its now 3.00 and looking at the number of tasks I have set myself to do before cooking tea better dash.

Might try and start blogging again, will see

Winter

I dont know why we all yearn for long summer days. Whats wrong with short winter days and long winter nights. The good thing about dark nights is that you dont have to feel guilty about sitting in and reading a book or listening to music or watching the TV. I constantly seem to feel guilty in summer if I sit down. I keep going to the window and thinking, must cut the grass, wash that window, weed that border. The list is endless. Now I just shut the curtains, light the fire and think cannot do any more today, hurrah!!

Also the best fun happens at this time of year. The children love conker contests, the price is right for that activity too. Halloween dressing up, pumpkin lanterns, bonfire night and of course Christmas.

So I am all in praise of cold, dank, dark, wet, but not miserable winter nights.

A womans work

I have got a day to myself, very rare in our house. Two of the children are at Tynemouth visiting the Sea Life Centre, the other one is at a paint ball party, not my idea of fun, and husband is up the hills with the dogs beating and shooting. Marvellous I think I can do exactly as I want all day with no pressures. I can finish my book, read the newspapers, bake some biscuits, watch an old film on the TV. Its blowing a gale outside all the leaves are flying past the windows and its a day to batten down the hatches, sit by the fire and indulge. Why then can't I seem to do that. I am normally moaning all day that I never get time to do what I want. I regularly have to ferry people here and there, rush about laying fires sorting washing, cooking meals. Is it decadence to sit and indulge or is it laziness. I know its not laziness but I cannot seem to relax and am looking for things to do. In fact I am actively making myself busy instead of sitting with that book.

I suppose when I moan about never having the time to do what I want to do I am really happy to be rushing about for everyone else. So the moral is don't moan, so I am going to stop. Well I say that now, bet when tomorrow comes and I am cooking Sunday dinner for 11, organising everyone off to football, washing and ironing (probably not ironing even I don't do that) I will be mumbling about never having time for myself again. Cannot win by the look of it. I think its just the way women are made we like to look for work, and if its not there we make work.

Its what women do.

Reality Bites

Whilst watching the a "reality"programme last night I was struck by how compulsively entertaining real family life is. I took a step back and thought what a day in the life of my family might look like to an outsider and would it be entertaining or not.

Day started as per normal no one can seem to get out of bed any earlier than the latest possible time needed to get where they need to go. What ensues then is five people trying to use the bathroom, eat breakfast, find clean clothes, pack lunches find PE kits and numerous other tasks to boring to write about them all, at the same time. Its only 8.00 and already everyone is niggling with each other, why is she still in the bathroom? who moved those shoes that I deliberately left in the middle of the floor as a tripping hazard so I wouldn't forget them? why are there no Shreddies? has anyone cleaned my football boots? what!!

Finally the house empties and I set off to deliver some adverts for my magazine pick up some proofs and artwork and call at the shops. On returning home cannot get the car in the drive as my mum has called and is chatting over the fence to the next door neighbour. No problem, say I'll just make a cup of coffee and move my car first so she can back out later. Reverse out and then watch her reverse out after me and like watching some horror unfolding in slow motion watch as she proceeds to reverse into a parked Highways van. Its strange shouting stop and knowing that its inevitable that its going to happen. One consolation is that even though scatty my mother is, she is the slowest driver in the whole of North Yorkshire and the back panel neatly folded in but when I leaned on it, it neatly popped out. There's a couple of marks that were getting her agitated but far less damage than there is on my car as I routinely park in scratchy bushes and cut corners near hedges so there are a myriad of tiny scrapes all over the side. Just makes the car look more used!!

Later in the evening all the family were getting bathed, so we could sit down and watch abit of reality TV. The oldest seemed to be taking forever, I know hes a teenager now, but hes a boy so hes not at the stage of spending forever in the bathroom. Went to check he hadn't drowned and found him bailing the bath out with a bucket into the sink. He explained that he had pushed the plug in so hard that it was now jammed in the hole and that when he had tried to force it out the chain had snapped. It must have taken us half an hour to bail the bath out and then I had to get pliers and unjam the plug. An hour and a half later I had repaired the plug mended the chain and managed to sit down.

That's not really an extraordinary day just a mundane day. Just goes to prove that reality is better than fiction any day of the week in my book.

Restaurant Review

Something to celebrate, new job. Great feeling that I am employable still whoopee!!. However I suppose its one thing looking like a superstar at an interview and something else completely trying to look like an efficient organised superwoman when the employment starts. Well we'll see I've always been good at blagging it. Anyway back to the point something to celebrate so decided to try one of the local, so to speak trendy, bistro type spots in town which had just been relaunched.

Three of us set off and were quietly impressed by the decor, all soft leather, neutral hues and stripped wood. Lots of "beautiful people" hanging around like clones. They all seem to have orange tans, poker straight hair in assorted colours chunky jewellery and metallic bags. Gone are the days when you used to ring someone up to check what they were wearing so that you didn't end up in the same outfit, now everyone turns up in the same general outfit anyway. The town seems to be full of "wags" or wannabe wags. I've always been interested in clothes and shopping. Well probably more than interested if you take a look in my wardrobe but I like to think that I am maybe a little more individual never one to follow the crowd slavishly.

We ordered drinks and were ushered to our table. Being all girls we were well into a good gossip and so weren't too worried about the fact that we eventually had to ask for a menu as we seemed to be completely ignored. If you were coming for a romantic a deux or a quick meal with a colleague and were a little short of time I would have been well fed up, or not literally.

The menu options sounded good and varied, if not a little to long a menu for my liking. I always wonder with these things how a chef in a small kitchen can produce 15 main courses and swear that he has cooked them all freshly. We all chose assorted mains and then waited and waited. Its a good thing that I am a people watcher and can spend many a happy hour analysing people by their clothes mannerisms and general appearance. Its almost a hobby of mine. I must admit that when the meal did finally arrive it was rather good and I find I cannot really criticise my stuffed chicken with mustard mash and my companions seemed equally satisfied with a rib eyed steak and succulent(ooh I hate that word but it is descriptive) duck breast. Didn't go for a dessert but stuck to a good strong caffeine fix and some more people watching.

All in all a good night, not bad but not outstanding restaurant but hey I don't think it ever is the venue unless your a real foodie but the company and the atmosphere. I think tonight I will stay in with the 'pickers' (family term) and a frozen ready meal and family DVD. Who needs trend setters and bottle of bolly. Well sometimes me variety is the spice of life so they say.