No wait there is more

The following day eldest received a phonecall from her school and they said 'there is a problem with your 6th form application, you cant do chemistry and biology, you can only do physics, food tech and psychology'.

So you can imagine the poor girls reaction, right in the middle of the zoo
as well

I have phoned the school to find out what the hell is going on, but of course that day the phones were permanently engaged and the next day (saturday) there wasnt a soul in sight, she was
offered the places a week ago and now they have changed their mind? I know she had a high c instead of the B she needed, but that was purely because of physics! she needs all 3 sciences to go to vets school.

good for her though, after her initial breakdown she pulled herself together and when she got home she worked out a way of doing it all (including going to college in the evenings to do the missing A's and probably taking an extra year) she was worried she would be 'behind' all her friends, but as I pointed out age is only important at school because you are with your peers,
but at college/uni it isnt at all important.

I am just so cross that the school phoned her, that there was no consultation about it and that for the next hour i tried to phone back and it was permanently engaged, and then of course they went home!

so until monday I am really in the dark.

All change!

You have just go to love the English education system, with 2 weeks to go until the start of my course, and 4 months since my interview I went to my enrollment. What a shocking experience, I was sat down (squeezed inbetween other students, whilst the tutors had more elbow room than you can shake a stick at on the outside of the 'u' shaped desk set up!) at the tutor immediately said 'I dont know why you have been offered the evening 1 year you arent working at the correct level, o you want to be a midwife you do know lots of people want to do that lets hope there are enough spaces at uni for you all, pah I see you dont have a GCSE math you
know you need that as well, thats another evening out at college thats 3 evenings thats a lot of hard work you know, not a lot of people can cope with that.........................' at the point where she started spurting on about how hard it was at uni to do the studying for midwifery (no really?) and that it doesnt fit in with having small kids (you dont say?) and I was on the point of either a. picking up my bits and walking out or b. punching her on the nose, another tutor stepped in and took over!
the long and the short of it is the entry for the evening is level 2 maths and level 3 communications (literacy) I am working level 1 maths, but exhibiting level 2 and level 2 literacy with some level 3 tendencies! so there wasnt really a problem, that coupled with my proven track record of independant study with the OU. yes I need to do a maths GCSE, however I
have done a level 1 course with the OU 'open mathematics' so we need to see if the uni will accept that, if not I have to delay my plans by a year and do the access this year and the Maths next year (3 evenings a week at college could push it too far with the family!)

So I was trotted off to the tills - queued for half an hour to even get into the room then another 20 minutes when I was told that as I was applying for financial assistance I was in the wrong place! finally got that sorted and only have to pay £65 (in installments) for the £1000 course!

Exam results

My eldest daughter received her GCSE results last week, and with one exception she did really well. We are very proud of her. Off to 6th form for her to do all 3 sciences, and food tech! brave girl.

My results are in from the OU course I completed back in June, final TMA was 67% final CMA was 70%. and final overall pass with an overall 67%. coupled with the last course I completed I have been awarded a Certificate in Computing and Mathematics.

this is what happens to your feet

if you spend too long in the bath, believe it or not those are the feet of a THREE year old! mind you that was over an hour in the bath - WHOOPS

And what does day nine bring?

Me waiting for a site visit to iron out any wrinkles, there aren't many, but there are a few bits I need sorting.

Do you think that means by the end of today I can have my kitchen back completely? I hope so, mainly because if I have my kitchen back I can have my living room back, which in turn means I can have my hallway back, which in turn means I can have my sanity back!

And on the eighth day I had......................................

My appliances back

And a lovely new floor, this stuff is 'low slip' so feels a bit 'odd' under foot but is superb. Feels like tiles, but is in fact vinyl so not as cold as the tiles where.
and the sharp eyed among you may notice the pots by the back door, the painting should commence later this week.

husband at work................

One child watching TV the other two still in bed, gives me the time to update the kitchen news!

Day 7 brought much excitement with tiles!

And greater excitement when I realised they had changed the work surface and now I had a space for an undercounter freezer, rather than the oddly-stick-out-at-the-end-of-a-row-of-cupboards-for-no-particular-reason freezer!

I only have one thing to say today

Hello Kate, Steve and Kids!
thank you for a lovely day!
see you soon...........................

And up to date with day 6 news

posted on day 6!

I have a kitchen! well almost. As we were leaving to go to the zoo today the kitchen was being delivered and mostly it is fitted. But my appliances still aren't in so tonight was a yummy (yeah right) freezer meal for us, and a exciting bowl of plain noodles (micro cooked) for the littlies *sigh*

there are a couple of things I am not happy with. On the larder cupboard the handle has been
damaged

The work surface here ends too soon, as thats the freezer space, but I will query that tomorrow with the foreman. And the small cupboard above it has a different handle to the rest!

but otherwise it seems to be taking shape, if they put the floor in tomorrow I may have my appliances back

*keeping everything crossed*

cinq

WOW the woman can speak french!
what did today bring? chaos!
I came back from a morning out to a soaking wet cat sat on the fence. It was pouring with rain, but is unlike Bobby to sit out in it.
a quick trip into the garden showed why he was out there


the builders had blocked the cat flap with a plant pot shoved through it so that the cat didnt walk on the freshly layed (or is that laid?) levelling compound.
we put some food and drink in the garage for him and left the door open so he could go in, but he was not a happy cat.
of course that also meant we couldnt go into the kitchen (especially as the fridge is blocking the doorway)
but worse than that I have no appliances, well Ido but they are all lined up in my living room.

of course the kids loved it - no cooker means no cooking so they had the most horrific McDonalds meal!

are we at the 4th day already?

in case you are wondering thats monday.
and why am I showing you photos you have seen before?
Aha - no, look closely you will see that these photos are the

'after the plasterer has been' shots!

third day

you have had to wait for this update as Mr.B and me have been away for our dirty weekend, whoops sorry I mean our wedding anniversary celebration (a whole year!)

The day we went away was an interesting one, I was very glad I spent the day popping from appointment to appointment (waxing, dying, cutting and general primping!) as the mad polish men were smashing my floor up! I did have a tiled floor..........................................................

Day two

Well that was traumatic! the noise, the dust, the rain. Well OK I can't blame the kitchen guys for the rain but it did mean I was stuck indoors most the day with the dust and the noise!

Now we have sockets, lots of lovely sockets. Sockets that say things like COOKER, DISHWASHER, FRIDGE, FREEZER.............................. and we have a light switch by the new door!
the conduit should be behind the tiles (O boy I do hope so, I hate conduit!)
The old kitchen just had normal raised sockets on the wall which all the white goods had to plug into - not the best idea if you don't want things switched off by mistake!

at the end of day 1?

I am left impressed at how, clean and tidy, efficient and polite my Polish workmen are!

I have a temporary sink, a plumbed in washing machine and a cooker that works



But look at the amazing wallpaper they have uncovered, there are two there, the blue pattern is over the 'beige' one which has the vases and plant hangers on. this house was built in the early 60's so I would say the plants are circa 1963 and the blue must be the 70's!

I forgot to add, when Mr.B sealed up the old door with framework and plaster board we tucked a little note in there saying the date, who we are, our ages and what we were doing to the kitchen!

and so there we are

the various corners of our kitchen before the grand clear out - which took place on sunday, whilst I was full of man flu I should add!

the picture top right is the blocked up doorway and the picture bottom left is the new door opening, no door yet though!

Today

Chaos arrived in my house in the shape of the kitchen fitters!

No that isn't a kitchen fitter, it is Mr.B creating me a new door from the kitchen into the living/dining room

and here he is getting ready to block up the old one

Things I have found

up my 3 year olds nose

1. half a slice of bread (yes it is possible)
2. a purple bead (she chose a pretty colour)
3. a lump of blue tac big enough to hang a life size picture of herself!

and all in the space of 12 months. will she learn? probably not