Saturday night:
Three large white wine and sodas;
2 cocktails (Long Island Iced Tea and Lemon Cheesecake);
A schmirnoff ice (can't spell);
A shot (thought to be Jaeger Bomb);
1 lemonade;
1 large glass of water.
Sunday morning:
1 fuzzy head;
3 large cups of coffee.
Why do I do it? I don't know :-(
Actually I do know! It's because my friend and I have had a difficult couple of years and last night my friend (H) needed some cheering up, hence we don our glad rags and head off into town pretending we're 21 again! I can at least tell you that we're not the only ones. In our little town in the middle of the country there are many 40 somethings having a good time and even heading off into cocktail bars and night clubs! It's grab a granny night and these days, I've suddenly realised - I'm the granny :-S. For some reason it doesn't stop the younger lads (trying) to chat us up and our ego is boosted for a few more weeks when we will feel the need to do it all over again.
Oh I do love a good cocktail! There's this bar in town does the most amazing ones and it's a good job we only go in about once a month because you need a whole month's salary to afford them!
It almost makes the following dodgy Sunday feel worth it. If only I could sleep in! Not for me! It doesn't matter that I roll in after 1am, I'm still wide awake (if not bushy tailed) by 6:45am!
I wonder if I could be charged with being drunk in charge of a lawn mower?
TTFN
Sunday, 8 September 2013
Thursday, 5 September 2013
A Kindle for me!
Tonight my good friend J has leant me his kindle because he never uses it - not only that, he had downloaded over 300 books for me to read! Someone please point me in the direction of the nearest beach/sunny pool side because that's where I need to be for the next 12 months, catching up on them all! If I could just have someone to pass me the occasional bacon roll, cuppa tea or Bacardi and coke then I could wish for nothing more. Bliss!
I've now got to work out how to use it but it probably won't take me long to work it out. I'm not as into my gadgets as my younger brother and my sons are but then again I'm not as techno unsavvy as my mum (now 70).
The family and me are trying to get mum a bit more into Internet usage and the only way to do it is little and often. Give her too much information and it doesn't sink in but leave it too long and she's forgotten how easy it is! Having said that there's nothing mum likes better than picking up bargains from charity and antiques shops and if she actually understood how Ebay works she'll either become bankrupt or Britain's highest paid pensioner!
Seriously though it does concern me that so much business is done online these days that those who do not realise the benefits or simply are not able to understand how it all works will get left behind both economically as well as socially.
So what shall I read on "my" kindle? Will it be a bit of Ian McEwan? or shall I plummet to the depths of Fifty Shades of Grey? Watch this space and I'll let you know.
TTFN
I've now got to work out how to use it but it probably won't take me long to work it out. I'm not as into my gadgets as my younger brother and my sons are but then again I'm not as techno unsavvy as my mum (now 70).
The family and me are trying to get mum a bit more into Internet usage and the only way to do it is little and often. Give her too much information and it doesn't sink in but leave it too long and she's forgotten how easy it is! Having said that there's nothing mum likes better than picking up bargains from charity and antiques shops and if she actually understood how Ebay works she'll either become bankrupt or Britain's highest paid pensioner!
Seriously though it does concern me that so much business is done online these days that those who do not realise the benefits or simply are not able to understand how it all works will get left behind both economically as well as socially.
So what shall I read on "my" kindle? Will it be a bit of Ian McEwan? or shall I plummet to the depths of Fifty Shades of Grey? Watch this space and I'll let you know.
TTFN
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Procrastinating gym bunny
Good evening blogger-readers!
I've been blogging for a whole week now and I'm wondering how many people are reading this. Yes I know we get stats but I many of these seem to be taken up with disreputable referral sites such as the very tedious vampirestats. Yawn! Give me a break! So if you are genuine please stop by and say "Hi" - it would be good to hear from you.
Yesterday I was feeling out of sorts because I had had my coil change so I'm pleased to report that I'm feeling a bit better today although I have to say that my enthusiasm for exercise seems to have passed me by. I've excused myself from running on the basis that it may cause the coil to drop out! Eeek! Imagine that, when you're trying to look cool whilst trotting past a hoard of hormonal youths! NO - not a good look!
After enough procrastination that would be enough to make my ex proud (Mr lastminute.com) I eventually decided that the gym was the best option as I could hop off the treadmill if things started to feel a bit dodgy.
Having the concentration span of a bowl of pea green soup I tend to spend about 5 minutes on each exercise machine rather than devote a whole hour to one sort. I once managed an hour and a half on a treadmill and I can honestly say its one of the most boring things I have ever done! What on earth possessed me? Training for a half marathon I think and as I recall there was snow and ice on the ground outside. Never again though.
So today it was 5 mins on the exercise bike, 5 minutes on the cross trainer, 5 minutes on the treadmill and 5 minutes on the rower - at which point I was sitting next to a very tasty specimen of young man :-D. That inspired me! Trying to be impressive enough to be noticed! As if! - my beetroot red face was the only thing that was going to get noticed this evening. But hey - listen up! Today (for 30 secs only) I managed to go 15km/hr on the treadmill - go me! Go me! Now if I can keep that up for about 2 hours perhaps Miss Radcliffe will have cause to be concerned!
I bet she's trembling in her trainers right now!
TTFN
I've been blogging for a whole week now and I'm wondering how many people are reading this. Yes I know we get stats but I many of these seem to be taken up with disreputable referral sites such as the very tedious vampirestats. Yawn! Give me a break! So if you are genuine please stop by and say "Hi" - it would be good to hear from you.
Yesterday I was feeling out of sorts because I had had my coil change so I'm pleased to report that I'm feeling a bit better today although I have to say that my enthusiasm for exercise seems to have passed me by. I've excused myself from running on the basis that it may cause the coil to drop out! Eeek! Imagine that, when you're trying to look cool whilst trotting past a hoard of hormonal youths! NO - not a good look!
After enough procrastination that would be enough to make my ex proud (Mr lastminute.com) I eventually decided that the gym was the best option as I could hop off the treadmill if things started to feel a bit dodgy.
Having the concentration span of a bowl of pea green soup I tend to spend about 5 minutes on each exercise machine rather than devote a whole hour to one sort. I once managed an hour and a half on a treadmill and I can honestly say its one of the most boring things I have ever done! What on earth possessed me? Training for a half marathon I think and as I recall there was snow and ice on the ground outside. Never again though.
So today it was 5 mins on the exercise bike, 5 minutes on the cross trainer, 5 minutes on the treadmill and 5 minutes on the rower - at which point I was sitting next to a very tasty specimen of young man :-D. That inspired me! Trying to be impressive enough to be noticed! As if! - my beetroot red face was the only thing that was going to get noticed this evening. But hey - listen up! Today (for 30 secs only) I managed to go 15km/hr on the treadmill - go me! Go me! Now if I can keep that up for about 2 hours perhaps Miss Radcliffe will have cause to be concerned!
I bet she's trembling in her trainers right now!
TTFN
Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Plastered!
After my eldest son (R) had finished his GCSEs I thought, in my wisdom, that to keep him occupied and out of trouble, he could decorate his bedroom! What I failed to take into account was his capacity to procrastinate and two months later we are still at the plastering stage!
But hey! This is progress because for weeks he has been stripping a bit of wall paper here and a bit of wall paper there just adding to it a tiny little bit every time I nagged him to get on with it.
The worst thing about it was that he never picked up the fallen bits that landed on his carpet meaning that every time he left his room a trail of wall paper bits would follow him wherever he went! All down the stairs, all into the bathroom and finally finding its way into my kitchen! Aaagh - well why can't it just find it's way into my bin!???
So now the plasterer has been and one ceiling and two walls have been successfully plastered. Hooray because I couldn't bear to see that 1970s woodchip of my walls and ceiling any longer. Tomorrow the job will be complete and we will all be relieved because the all of Rs possessions and furniture are strewn around the house. Even the poor miserable looking fish has three jigsaws and a meccano set piled up on top of his tank.
Well I'm going to have to apologise for a short blog today - after having my old coil removed (ouch) and the new one in (don't worry I'm not going to give you a blow by blow account), I am feeling a little out of sorts!
TTFN
But hey! This is progress because for weeks he has been stripping a bit of wall paper here and a bit of wall paper there just adding to it a tiny little bit every time I nagged him to get on with it.
The worst thing about it was that he never picked up the fallen bits that landed on his carpet meaning that every time he left his room a trail of wall paper bits would follow him wherever he went! All down the stairs, all into the bathroom and finally finding its way into my kitchen! Aaagh - well why can't it just find it's way into my bin!???
So now the plasterer has been and one ceiling and two walls have been successfully plastered. Hooray because I couldn't bear to see that 1970s woodchip of my walls and ceiling any longer. Tomorrow the job will be complete and we will all be relieved because the all of Rs possessions and furniture are strewn around the house. Even the poor miserable looking fish has three jigsaws and a meccano set piled up on top of his tank.
Well I'm going to have to apologise for a short blog today - after having my old coil removed (ouch) and the new one in (don't worry I'm not going to give you a blow by blow account), I am feeling a little out of sorts!
TTFN
Monday, 2 September 2013
Sleep Deprived :-(
It all started on Thursday night when I couldn't get to sleep and knowing I had a party to prepare for the next day and a cake to bake I thought I'd better get to bed on time, even though I wasn't particularly sleepy.
Normally I'll drop off as soon as my head touches the pillow so I knew I was in trouble when half an hour later I was still lying there twiddling my toes. I thought I might be dropping off when suddenly I remembered that my car needed it's MOT and feeling certain I wouldn't remember again in the morning I got up to write it down. Try again .... twiddle toes... remember this time that I had to get Aunty A's Birthday card! Damn... up again...write it down! Aagh - I was wide awake by this time so read some more of my Rosie Thomas book. Then I think I'm getting sleepy so turn out the lights and try once more. Hmmmm... twiddle toes....think I need the toilet! Double damn.. get up and go down stairs to the loo (I'm in the attic room) ...come back up and try again. I think it was well past 4.30 by the time I got to sleep and I was wide awake again by 7! Aaagh - what's the matter with me?
Friday night I felt much better and blissfully achieved the requisite 8 hours sleep but Saturday and Sunday it was insomniacs anonymous again :-(. If you read my previous posts you may have remembered that my loud snoring friend disturbed my Saturday slumbers but what on earth was I doing wide awake at 4.30 again this morning??? There was no snoring, nothing to remember and I didn't even need a wee! There was nothing for it but get to work early, knowing that I could finish early if I did. As if! Having returned from a week's holiday the inbox loomed particularly large - groan!
Well, I'm thoroughly pooped now so please do excuse my rambles! Tonight I'm going to take some Nytol and everything will be hunky-dory in the morning! Well, for me it will be - my boys are back to school tomorrow - one starting high school for the first time and the other starting his A level course. Son no. 1 is doing A levels in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology! Surely he can't be related to me! How did that happen?? Oh yes - his dad has a chemistry degree - knew it was nothing to do with me (ardent social scientist that I am).
TTFN ... zzzzzzzzzzzz
Normally I'll drop off as soon as my head touches the pillow so I knew I was in trouble when half an hour later I was still lying there twiddling my toes. I thought I might be dropping off when suddenly I remembered that my car needed it's MOT and feeling certain I wouldn't remember again in the morning I got up to write it down. Try again .... twiddle toes... remember this time that I had to get Aunty A's Birthday card! Damn... up again...write it down! Aagh - I was wide awake by this time so read some more of my Rosie Thomas book. Then I think I'm getting sleepy so turn out the lights and try once more. Hmmmm... twiddle toes....think I need the toilet! Double damn.. get up and go down stairs to the loo (I'm in the attic room) ...come back up and try again. I think it was well past 4.30 by the time I got to sleep and I was wide awake again by 7! Aaagh - what's the matter with me?
Friday night I felt much better and blissfully achieved the requisite 8 hours sleep but Saturday and Sunday it was insomniacs anonymous again :-(. If you read my previous posts you may have remembered that my loud snoring friend disturbed my Saturday slumbers but what on earth was I doing wide awake at 4.30 again this morning??? There was no snoring, nothing to remember and I didn't even need a wee! There was nothing for it but get to work early, knowing that I could finish early if I did. As if! Having returned from a week's holiday the inbox loomed particularly large - groan!
Well, I'm thoroughly pooped now so please do excuse my rambles! Tonight I'm going to take some Nytol and everything will be hunky-dory in the morning! Well, for me it will be - my boys are back to school tomorrow - one starting high school for the first time and the other starting his A level course. Son no. 1 is doing A levels in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology! Surely he can't be related to me! How did that happen?? Oh yes - his dad has a chemistry degree - knew it was nothing to do with me (ardent social scientist that I am).
TTFN ... zzzzzzzzzzzz
Sunday, 1 September 2013
Rainbow Cake
Last night I stayed at my friend's house in Crewe. On the way over I dropped my youngest son's friend (O) back home on the way - they had had a sleepover. On the journey little O explained to me that he liked baking and when I deposited him back with his folks he came running back out of his house clutching a cake wrapped in silver foil, which he had baked especially for my son's birthday. "Lovely" I exclaimed - "I'll give that to C tomorrow"
Well I dutifully looked after that cake as it came with me on my travels and when I returned home this afternoon C was delighted to open his little cakey parcel. Wow! What a sight for saw eyes! A perfect rainbow Swiss roll cake to rival Joseph's Technicolour Dream Coat!
C ate the red end (see picky below) and can now be located hovering approximately 3 inches from the living room ceiling!
Last night whilst staying in Crewe my friend and I found a fab little Indian restaurant. Really good value once I had had the menu translated. Now, I do know my Korma from my Jalfrezi but I had trouble distinguishing between:
I've already mentioned in a previous post that I can't eat all this and maintain my non Miss Piggy proportions without some sort of exercise to mitigate it so today I have been for both a walk and a run (halo shining). The walk was around Queen's Park in Crewe, whereas the run (5.5 miles) was upon my return to Stafford. Queen's Park has these adult "Gym-Style" equipment in it so friend dutifully watched like a proud parent, whilst I tested everything out. I tried really hard not to let the outrage show on my face as a little boy occupied the running machine, taking away all the fun from the adults! OK - it was just me!
Having not slept too well the night before (friend snores - loudly) I wasn't much in the mood for a run so I took it nice and gently, averaging just over 10 minute miles, chewing a few dextrose sweets along the way to try and prevent myself from lying down on the kerbside and dozing off! Result! Over 500 calories burnt :-D Go me! Go me!
Time to scape C off the ceiling now and try and get him into the swing of earlier bed times in readiness for the start of term....
TTFN
Well I dutifully looked after that cake as it came with me on my travels and when I returned home this afternoon C was delighted to open his little cakey parcel. Wow! What a sight for saw eyes! A perfect rainbow Swiss roll cake to rival Joseph's Technicolour Dream Coat!
C ate the red end (see picky below) and can now be located hovering approximately 3 inches from the living room ceiling!
Last night whilst staying in Crewe my friend and I found a fab little Indian restaurant. Really good value once I had had the menu translated. Now, I do know my Korma from my Jalfrezi but I had trouble distinguishing between:
- Tandoori Mixed Grill
- Mixed Tandoori Platter
- Tandoori Mix
- Tandoori Mixamatosis (OK so it wasn't that but you get the picture)!
I've already mentioned in a previous post that I can't eat all this and maintain my non Miss Piggy proportions without some sort of exercise to mitigate it so today I have been for both a walk and a run (halo shining). The walk was around Queen's Park in Crewe, whereas the run (5.5 miles) was upon my return to Stafford. Queen's Park has these adult "Gym-Style" equipment in it so friend dutifully watched like a proud parent, whilst I tested everything out. I tried really hard not to let the outrage show on my face as a little boy occupied the running machine, taking away all the fun from the adults! OK - it was just me!
Having not slept too well the night before (friend snores - loudly) I wasn't much in the mood for a run so I took it nice and gently, averaging just over 10 minute miles, chewing a few dextrose sweets along the way to try and prevent myself from lying down on the kerbside and dozing off! Result! Over 500 calories burnt :-D Go me! Go me!
Time to scape C off the ceiling now and try and get him into the swing of earlier bed times in readiness for the start of term....
TTFN
Saturday, 31 August 2013
I'm no Thatcherite but .... Thatcher's Cider...
Good evening!
Now, I'm no Thatcherite but you can't beat a bottle of Thatcher's cider.
You may have guessed from the blog's name that my name is Katrina. Most people who know me well call me Trina but another variant that some people use is Katy. So it's Thatcher's Katy cider for me! I know I'm biased but it tastes reeeeeaal gooooood! :-)
My "ex", G, is here this weekend. Although he can be considered "the guilty party" in the breakdown of our marriage, I do try to be as reasonable as I possibly can. It's the best thing for my children and for that reason we do our best to get along. He stops over (in the spare room) about once a fortnight, which means I can get out and about if I want. I'm stopping with my friend tonight so I've left G and the boys at home trying to sort out the tip that is my eldest son's bedroom.
It's going to be plastered on Tuesday and the plasterer wants me to take off the radiator. Hello! I'm a girl! I don't do things like that (I nearly said can't but I'm sure I could if I really wanted to)! Anyway, G has taken it off and when I left the house the pipe was spewing water all over the house! Aaagh - so G was hot footing it off to B and Q (a Do it Yourself store), whilst I quietly and deftly took myself out of the situation! Heaven knows what I will come back to tomorrow! Wish me luck!
This morning I went for a cycle ride. This is the first time I have been on a bike, apart from the short ride to work, for three weeks. Three weeks I rode further than I have ever done before on a 35 mile sportive. My butt needed the three weeks reprieve.
I know! I know! I can hear all you hardened cyclists out there saying "That's nothing - I do that before breakfast" but you have to take into account that I'm a lady of a certain age and I have only been riding for about 4 months.
For about 8 years I have been a runner and whilst training for my first marathon I sustained an injury (plantar fasciitis) once I'd got to 17 miles in my training. Oddly, there was no warning, it just went and I could hardly walk for a few months let alone run.
I usually walked to work and back but even this 1.5mile trip proved difficult so I decided to cycle instead. I live on a hill so getting to work in the town centre was dead easy but coming back home was always a good work out and I hated it. Suspecting that this was something to do with my bike as well as me, I borrowed a bike from work and bliss - it was so much better. So much so that I purchased one on the work cycle scheme - I didn't have to pay as much tax on it and it comes out of my monthly salary.
Shortly after I purchased my bike some colleagues entered themselves into a 35 mile sportive and I thought I could do this too - I had about 12 weeks to get up to speed. And length. Each weekend I would extend my mileage, and hurt my butt that little bit more!
Being a runner I already had lycra shorts so when I came across some padded knickers for female cyclists I thought that was all I needed. Not Sexy! No - it looked like I was wearing the world's largest sanitary towel :-( Not a good look. What's more they were useless at stopping my butt pain so eventually I got some proper cycling shorts. These are better! Phew! Even so, getting off my bike after 35 miles was achingly painful.
So it's been three weeks since my last ride and today I went 14 miles or so - and I was really made up to note that I did it at over 1.5 minutes per mile faster than the first time I did it! Yay! :-D Please note that if I ever compare my achievements to the likes of Victoria Pendleton then I would have given up a long time ago. I have found that the only way to measure achievement is to just beat yourself - there's no way I can compete with a leggy 30 year-old!
That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!
TTFN
T
Now, I'm no Thatcherite but you can't beat a bottle of Thatcher's cider.
You may have guessed from the blog's name that my name is Katrina. Most people who know me well call me Trina but another variant that some people use is Katy. So it's Thatcher's Katy cider for me! I know I'm biased but it tastes reeeeeaal gooooood! :-)
My "ex", G, is here this weekend. Although he can be considered "the guilty party" in the breakdown of our marriage, I do try to be as reasonable as I possibly can. It's the best thing for my children and for that reason we do our best to get along. He stops over (in the spare room) about once a fortnight, which means I can get out and about if I want. I'm stopping with my friend tonight so I've left G and the boys at home trying to sort out the tip that is my eldest son's bedroom.
It's going to be plastered on Tuesday and the plasterer wants me to take off the radiator. Hello! I'm a girl! I don't do things like that (I nearly said can't but I'm sure I could if I really wanted to)! Anyway, G has taken it off and when I left the house the pipe was spewing water all over the house! Aaagh - so G was hot footing it off to B and Q (a Do it Yourself store), whilst I quietly and deftly took myself out of the situation! Heaven knows what I will come back to tomorrow! Wish me luck!
This morning I went for a cycle ride. This is the first time I have been on a bike, apart from the short ride to work, for three weeks. Three weeks I rode further than I have ever done before on a 35 mile sportive. My butt needed the three weeks reprieve.
I know! I know! I can hear all you hardened cyclists out there saying "That's nothing - I do that before breakfast" but you have to take into account that I'm a lady of a certain age and I have only been riding for about 4 months.
For about 8 years I have been a runner and whilst training for my first marathon I sustained an injury (plantar fasciitis) once I'd got to 17 miles in my training. Oddly, there was no warning, it just went and I could hardly walk for a few months let alone run.
I usually walked to work and back but even this 1.5mile trip proved difficult so I decided to cycle instead. I live on a hill so getting to work in the town centre was dead easy but coming back home was always a good work out and I hated it. Suspecting that this was something to do with my bike as well as me, I borrowed a bike from work and bliss - it was so much better. So much so that I purchased one on the work cycle scheme - I didn't have to pay as much tax on it and it comes out of my monthly salary.
Shortly after I purchased my bike some colleagues entered themselves into a 35 mile sportive and I thought I could do this too - I had about 12 weeks to get up to speed. And length. Each weekend I would extend my mileage, and hurt my butt that little bit more!
Being a runner I already had lycra shorts so when I came across some padded knickers for female cyclists I thought that was all I needed. Not Sexy! No - it looked like I was wearing the world's largest sanitary towel :-( Not a good look. What's more they were useless at stopping my butt pain so eventually I got some proper cycling shorts. These are better! Phew! Even so, getting off my bike after 35 miles was achingly painful.
So it's been three weeks since my last ride and today I went 14 miles or so - and I was really made up to note that I did it at over 1.5 minutes per mile faster than the first time I did it! Yay! :-D Please note that if I ever compare my achievements to the likes of Victoria Pendleton then I would have given up a long time ago. I have found that the only way to measure achievement is to just beat yourself - there's no way I can compete with a leggy 30 year-old!
That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!
TTFN
T
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