It's all goooood!

I'm having a sentimental moment - maybe because I'm tired and feeling a bit soppy, but it ca't be helped...

Right now I'm just feeling lucky to have met a few good people in my lifetime.  My 32 years on the planet have been somewhat tempestuous to say the least, but through the storms, I few truly special individuals have been there for me.  Even after losing touch for 10-12 years, it's warming to be able to pick up the phone and talk as though we saw each other only yesterday.

To my true friends, thanks for knowing and accepting me for all I am, ignoring my imperfections and putting up with my insanity! May the good times continue and if they don't, well we can always chill out and have a moan together!

Bxxx

Looking forward to another year...

A belated happy New Year to all!

2011 was brought in fairly gently for me - I was recovering from flu so stayed home with a movie, nice mild curry and the company of a good friend who was also recovering from the dreaded bug! It was a really pleasant evening but I crashed out at 2am having absolutely no energy to keep my eyes open any longer!

New Year's day was spent with family in Leeds. Most of the evening was spent chatting and playing Wii – my ribs hurt from laughing by the time I had to leave! We also tried to release a Chinese floating lantern into the sky to commemorate the passing of my Great Aunt a year ago, but in our true family fashion it all went a bit pear shaped...

Silly New Year faces!

...the lighter block which you're supposed to set alight under the lamp initially refused to catch fire, and once it had the wind picked up so much that flames were flapping all over and the lantern, instead of filling with warm air and expanding, kept caving in on itself and was blowing all over. Sufficed to say after much finger burning, hair singeing, squawking and general pandemonium, said lantern went up in flames – not floating gently into the sky 'up in flames' but the 'WOOF' “AAAARGH get a bucket of water” 'up in flames'. I can only imagine my Great Aunt absolutely wetting herself laughing as she looked on in despair at the chaos!

Despite my close shave with spontaneous combustion, the New Year has started out pretty well for me and I'm hoping the themes of positivity, growth, development, friendships, family and adventure will continue throughout the months to come.

As for resolutions, I've decided to focus on being more sociable this year – I figure that's a nice achievable one which can also be a lot of fun! Towards the end of last year I was so caught up worrying about, well, everything, that I became a wee bit antisocial, which, lets face it, is no fun at all! So this year is all about family and friends :o)  A massive aspect of this resolution is to really focus on creating some fantastic memories for Elijah - I'd hate for him to look back and think his childhood was boring... 

...besides, it's a good excuse for me to dress up and play pirates as well as being a vital part of my child's learning and social development. Convinced? No?  You're right - my motivations are purely selfish - I just like playing pirates!  Moving swiftly on...

My psychology degree is being put on hold this year while I focus on career development. I was promoted to Account Manager at the start of the year so I'll be focusing on my new role and the various social media and marketing initiatives I'm working on for Arrow ECS training. It's all wonderfully interesting and I get a buzz from seeing positive results.  I'm mildly concerned that my inner geek may be becoming the more dominate aspect of my personality, but I'm fairly confident I can pull off the geek chic successfully...

General stuff I'd like to do this year – get lost in the countryside, paddle barefoot in a stream, take long walks on beaches I've never visited before, sing daily (in fairness that's nothing new and I apologise heartily to my next-door-neighbour for inflicting my noise upon her), find my muse and finish the A2 charcoal picture that's been sat in the attic for months untouched, bake the ultimate chocolate cake (again), make 1 true new friend (fakes need not apply)...

I think that'll do as a start. Once I've been airlifted to safety after losing myself in the country and slicing my foot open on some glass in the bottom of a stream whilst paddling because I wasn't paying attention to where I was stepping because I was singing too much in an attempt to find my muse, THEN I'll add a few more items to my list! ;o)

And so to my little quote corner and a reminder of that which was, Pinky and the Brain...

Brain: We stand upon the thresh hold of greatness, what do you say to that? :
Pinky: Troz..

Brain: Man has an evil side Pinky...
Pinky: Ummm, front or back?

Brain: Now we must liberate their ill gotten booty.

Pinky: Won't that tickle?

Brain: If I could move my limbs, I would hurt you Pinky.

Peace, love, empathy n some serious excitement to all!

Bxxx

Owl City - Vanilla Twilight

Just Call Me the Tooth Fairy!

On the morning of 11th October my little boy lost his first tooth! I wish I could say it was a natural, unaided event but unfortunately it had been prompted by a painful crunch on a hard sweetie graciously imparted by Uncle Scott. A wobbly tooth and a few weeks later my son calls to me from the bathroom in distress - not because his tooth has fallen out, but because the tooth ker-plunked into the loo and he’s afraid the tooth fairy won’t leave a magic coin under his pillow if his tooth’s been flushed! As the dutiful mum I donned a rubber glove, fished out the little tooth and doused it in antibacterial cleaner, bleach and industrial strength ‘kills anything within a 10 mile radius’ cleanser before popping it into a little piece of tissue for later.


Because this was Eli’s first tooth loss and he’s been a bit down recently (school issues) I wanted to make a fuss and inject a little bit of magic into the event, so I thought a little gift would be better than the customary coin under the pillow. I spotted a Ben10 electric toothbrush during my lunch break that day and thought perfect! He loves Ben10 and aside from that it’s fun, practical, tooth themed and not too expensive!

That night, after my munchkin had zonked, I crept into his room and swapped his little tooth for the Ben10 all singing all dancing tooth brush. I did have some momentary concern for his comfort – after all, the princess had issues with a pea under several mattresses – this was a wazzing great big boxed tooth brush complete with flashing Omnitrix and spare head... I shuffled him around a little, readjusting his head on the pillow to avoid the bulk and all was set for morning.

Morning came. My awakening was that of a not-so-small exuberant child jumping on my head “look what the Tooth Fairy brought me mummy!”. He ripped open the packaging played with the flashing gizmos and then enquired “I wonder if the Tooth Fairy left me a magic coin too?!?”. Arse. Perhaps I should have taken the stance “That’s your lot kiddo!” but I really didn’t want him disappointed in any way so I grabbed a quid off the bedside chest and tore after him into his room. He’d already inspected under his pillow and looked a little crestfallen so I told him to look under his bed while I not-so-stealthily popped the pound coin into his pillowcase. Upon my suggestion to check his pillow case he dutifully shook his pillow and out dropped the coin – MAGIC!

The pure glee on his face was heart melting! It’s been a while since I’ve seen him so happy - a little bit of effort really pays off and is sooooo worthwhile  :o)  I just hope he's not going to try to make his other teeth prematurely wobbly so he can have another visit from the tooth fairy!

GO APE!

This Saturday some of the guys from work and I descended upon Go Ape based in the stunning Dalby Forest. We’d been looking forward to the high-wire forest adventure for a number of weeks and were so excited when we arrived – well, all except Tom who was SLIGHTLY hung over and feeling a little bit sorry for himself!
We were kitted out with harnesses, pulley and karabiners, and after a half hour training and safety session we were let loose to swing in the trees...

The giant obstacle courses in the trees use ladders, walkways, bridges and tunnels made of wood, rope and super-strong wire, and top it all off with the country’s best zip lines (including the longest at 426 metres – check it out on You Tube).

The zip wires were amazing – the further into the course you ventured, the higher and longer the zip lines became until you found yourself cruising over the tops of trees, spinning wildly at great speed!

As well as the zip lines my personal favourite was the Tarzan swing – attached to a rope you basically leap from the platform and swing across a wide opening, crash into a suspended cargo net where you have to clamber up to the platform and unhook yourself. When you’re so high up in the trees with people on the ground watching in awe and taking pictures of the crazies swinging through the air, it’s such an adrenaline rush!

My fear of heights never really surfaced throughout the session – I was so focussed on getting through the various obstacles and having such a laugh, the altitude element didn’t really factor into the equation at all!

After our Go Ape experience we dutifully removed the masses of wood chips we’d collected in our undergarments from our zip line crash landings, then had a relaxing picnic on a nearby field.

Altogether a fab day which we hope to repeat again very soon!

If you're interested, click here for more details about Go Ape!

You have to take a look at the video below of Jade's fab crash-landing! 

Climbing Week 3

Climbing last night was sooooooo good! I was a little worried because I did so badly the previous week but I think I may have had some kind of bug because I kept going lightheaded even when I was standing around doing nothing, so it wasn’t ideal!

This week my energy levels were up, I was feeling confident and determined to succeed! I clambered up a grade 3 climb in seconds so spent the rest of the evening attacking grade 4-6 climbs which offered a bit more of a challenge. I discovered I’m rubbish at smearing (sticking your foot flat against the wall and pushing yourself up) so will have to practice a bit more in that department, but really got to grips with shifting my weight around for optimum manoeuvrability, keeping my arms straight taking less weight on my muscles and more on my old bones, and managed to use some ridiculously small nooks and crannies to cling onto – at one point I was balancing on 1 big toe whilst reaching for a decent hand-hold! Ethan Hunt eat your heart out! ;o)

For the last 10 minutes of our class time we took to the bouldering walls where we were able to clamber around without ropes and harness. The bouldering area has a really deep squishy crash mat for a floor, so if you do happen to fall off it absorbs some of the impact and you won’t hurt yourself as much! As our instructor pointed out though, it isn’t completely hazard free – if you land on a funny angle injuries can still occur, so it’s always best to exercise a little caution and not fling yourself around with wanton abandon! It was whilst bouldering that I received my first climbing injury – I grazed the back of my hand and an elbow – extremely minor but in my mind, a momentous occasion as it marked the beginning of a whole string of dings I’ll receive having fun on the walls!

Unfortunately one of the members of our little posse had a mountain biking accident earlier in the week and wasn’t able to join us for our final class so the night wasn’t quite as good as it should have been, but we all did really well on our climbs and all felt a massive sense of achievement. We all passed our assessments and are now fully fledged members of the Harrogate Climbing Centre – yey us!

Our plan now is to carry on practicing for a few weeks, do the leading course and then take to the great outdoors!

Nothing to say...

So, right now I don't have a great deal to say - I know, shock right?  I've just been going through some CDs of all my photo archives and found this picture of my little boo which just happens to be one of my favorites and will no doubt cause him multiple moments of embarassment when he grows older and realises I shared it with the world!  It never fails to make me smile!  Love my boo!!! :o)