O M G!

How are you? I haven't seen you around for ages, how are things with you? are you feeling well? o that is good news I am glad the ointment cleared that up! and the kids? No she hasn't has she, that is a bit embarrassing! But good news that they are settling in a bit better now. Is the other half still making that long commute to work? must be tough for you all -but good that they have given a pay rise to cover the extra expense!
Are you all sorted for Christmas? I have been fairly well organised this year,and last night we wrapped all the presents and placed them under the tree (that only went up yesterday!), the girls are really excited about it all! how about yours? I know you would think they would behave a bit better knowing Santa Claus may call this week!
I am kind of enjoying the snow, sorry you had that little mishap ~ I hope you *ahem* bottom will be less painful soon! Do you think the snow will keep coming over Christmas? won't it be magical if it does, I am not sure I can remember a white Christmas, Pardon? you cheeky so and so I am not THAT much older than you. teehee
Yes thank you Uni is going really well, its all so interesting out on placement I have seen, done and learnt so much ~ everyone is so helpful and patient.
OK well its been lovely bumping into you, these bags are heavy so I must make tracks. We must catch up properly soon over a cup of tea, OOOOO I know I am hosting a fundraising evening for HannahBanana. Its on Monday the 11th January 2010 at Champneys in St Albans from 6 - 8 pm. the tickets cost £15 each, for that you will get refreshments, a mini facial, a make up demonstration, a goody bag and discounts on purchases and treatments! do let me know if you wish to come; you can email me of leave a comment ~ I need a deposit of £5 asap. It would be great if you could join me!

(p.s ~ I am indeed hosting a fundraiser - do come I would love to see you!)

MMMM that went well then!

Last day of November and how did my blog-a-day go?
between you and me, I think really well! O.K so I didn't make an entry EVERY day - but I averaged 1 every other day, pretty good going for a woman with 3 kids, one Mr.B, study and now full time work.

I feel I need to put in an explanation of what PLACEMENT means, I have been making the sorts of assumptions that the Uni tells us we mustn't do! (assuming that everyone knows the terminology we use). 40% of my university course is studying to be a midwife, this is known as block, when we are in uni doing the theory. The other 60% is doing the practical side of the training, this is known as placement. At the moment I am on community, I am working with a team of midwifes who work out of local surgeries, visiting mums at home who have had their baby's and in the clinics to check the pregnant women and occasionally post natal mums and baby's.
In February I start a 8 week placement, the first 4 in one of the hospitals I am attached to, on their ante natal ward. caring for pregnant mums who have had to be admitted to hospital for care during pregnancy. Then I will be at the other hospital I am attached to working in their delivery suite - where the babies are born!

Makes it all sound so simple doesn't it? Of course whilst I am on placement I still have the learning stuff to do, lots of reading on what I am learning during the day, my lovely mentors make sure of that!

Ouch!

How stupid do I feel?

VERY!

today I fell out of a house!

seriously! right in front of a patients husband!

collapsed into a pathetic heap on his drive!

oh boy am I in pain, grazed knees and sore hands.

but worse is the sprained ankle. I can barely move it, and putting weight on it is a no no.

Please don't let this get worse, I want to go out on placement tomorrow!

I am having too much fun to miss it!

Bloody Brilliant!

Seriously, it's been bloody brilliant the last few days!

I have had the most excellent community midwife mentors who want to teach me so much. I have taken blood, done blood pressures, palpated women ante and post natal, measured bumps, helped with breast feeding, checked babies, weighed babies and so much more.

It's a rush! the lovely Midwife I was with today, took a back seat and let me take the clinic on my own! she told me she thinks I am great and will make a brilliant midwife - she wishes I were 'her' student (my mentor is on annual leave for a fortnight, so this one is looking after me!)

Now I have finished blowing my own trumpet I will also tell you of the young woman, only in this country 1 month - pregnant, ill and scared. Of the woman whose only hope to have a baby was through IVF, and although pregnant is now so anxious about it she can't allow herself to relax and enjoy it.

This job is going to really have its highs and lows!

*YAWN* *SNORE*

I have had the best couple of days - midwifery experiencewise

But right now I am exhausted having not slept properly since Friday night, so I am not going to blog about it tonight.

Tomorrow I will try to tell you everything I have been up to!

Signed

Student Midwife Mrs.B!

Introducing................................

Student midwife Mrs.B!

I'm not at all jealous!

Of the student midwifes who are coming to the end of their first placements, and have not only witnessed their first 5 births (we have to witness 5 births before we can start delivering) but are now doing their first deliveries (with the help of their mentors hands!)

Me I am not out of Uni until Monday - and then it will be community, which is fab in its own way - but doubt I will see many, if any, births!

The one with no title

Had I not been so tired last night I would have blogged this then. The day we nearly had Niagra falls in our house!

It all began when........................................................................

I noticed a rather 'squidgy' feeling under foot in the bathroom when I went to the airing cupboard, this rang alarm bells, and true enough on inspection of the ceiling in the hallway I was faced with a huge bulge!

Cue mad panic clearing of hallway incase of cascade! Then phonecall to our landlord (the local council, some times I am soooo grateful to be a tenant!) for a plumber to come out. He was here within the hour and checked boiler (newly fitted in April) seems some condensing pipe or other was fitted properly and so has probably been slowly leaking since April. with that sorted and the ceiling bulged drained the best we can, we are left with a ruined flooring upstairs, holes in our celing downstairs, a bucket of murky water in the hallway (catching drips) and sodden squishy floorboards in the bathroom. Now I have to wait to see what our landlords are going to do about it - I will be jiggered if I am going to make a claim on my household insurance!

May Contain Nuts

Warning on our recently purchased bottle of Calamine lotion:

Possible side effects

most people will not have problems, but some may get some of these:

• skin rash
• skin irritation

I'm sorry, but is it just me?????

wow is it that time already?

Getting close to Christmas *shudder* and so the Christmas cake is made, wrapped up and ready for its weekly 'feed' of brandy!

Now when I say *shudder* to Christmas, don't misunderstand me, I love Christmas. The magic and excitement, the happiness and the fun. But I can not stand the way the pressure is put on, the commercialism and the greed. I used to buy into it - my children had more toys than they could possibly need, we had so much food we would eat ourselves silly and then throw lots away, and we would take the next year to pay off the credit card.

Now we have a far more subdued affair, in fact Christmas dinner last year, at the children's request was Macaroni cheese! and it will be the same this year, although we will have turkey and the trimmings on boxing day when my parents visit.

And I am at peace with this lovely quiet way of doing it - so why is it I feel guilty when I don't buy every Tom, Dick, Harry and theirs great Aunts a present!?!?

New shoes

Aren't they a thing of beauty? and a billy bargain at £9! AND killer heels!

Not a lot else to add this morning, except to thank the lovely ladies who came out in the cold last night to support my fundraising card and book sale. YOU ROCK!

Fantastic day @ Milton Keynes

Yesterday I had a lovely day shopping with my sister in law. We went to 'The Centre MK' ~ SIL's second home and my favourite shopping centre.
mission (for me) was an outfit for mother in laws 60th birthday, a particular style of bag for placement and a notebook from paperchase.
achieved the first and last (in fact ended up with two lovely tops to choose from for party) couldn't find a bag, but did get some gorgeous shoes!

whilst there I saw a shakeaway~ have really fancied trying one for a while now, wow what an experience - not just the drink but the whole thing! I had a hot Norah and SIL had a hot Janet!
although to be totally truthful I couldn't drink it all it was a bit sickly (did I mention that a few hours earlier I had a hot chocolate at starbucks!??!)
I do believe all the walking I did during the day possibly counteracted the extra calories from the Norah mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Really worried

that I will be punished for breaking a promise!
I didn't make a blog entry yesterday, even though I had a newsworthy day!

it was a long day though, and that is my excuse.

My day at Uni was spent in the 'skills lab', a building in Hatfield where health care students can practice their practical skills. Yesterday I palpated a pregnant mannequin, and listwen to the fetal heartbeat through a Pinard stethescope. We also learnt how and why to do urinalysis on artificial urine! and then we had a manual handling workshop - where we were able to take apart and try out a birthing bed, and push each other up and down the corridor on a hospital bed!

However throughout the day I was feeling worse and worse and by the time the children went to bed I was feeling awful - burning eyes, constant sneezing and a banging headache, the lack of blog entry can be mainly blamed on that!

Today I am having a duvet day with middle child as she is also suffering with this yucky bug. Lets hope we both feel better tomorrow (mainly for me as I am supposed to be going on a shopping trip with my lovely sister in law)

If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit

join our club!

I really wanted to do something exciting today so I could tell you about it, but I am not well (all together now ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

I managed to drag my sorry butt to uni for a 2 hour lecture, and then in to town to run some errands - but that's about it!

So the kids are in bed, Mr. B is at scouts ~ and my evening consists of knitting my new hat, drinking tea, listening to a podcast or two - and maybe eating a club biscuit!

Tomorrow I have a really exciting day at uni, which I am determined not to miss, early night for me then! although I really wanted to stay up to watch the first episode of the new series of spooks but ~I will have to see how I feel.

Thought of the day

Is there a thought today? lots of them really, but do I want to share them? More to the point do you really want to know want I think about when I am alone?!

Making an entry every day isn't that easy, well it would be if I wasn't worried about boring you or waffling on!

today I made arrangements, wrote cheques, did some Uni work, changed beds etc etc.

nothing of any great magnitude.

on a plus note I had consultation with the smallest child's teacher today. Smallest is only 4 so I do expect any amazing academic achievements, however I was very pleased to hear how well she was doing and there have been big improvements on her behaviour (thankfully! as she had a difficult start to reception)

sorry about the mundaneness of this entry ~ I will try to do something exciting tomorrow!

weyhey!

reporting in for day 2 of the blog-a-day-in-November challenge!

this is the result of the pumpkin carving - all lit up to welcome our ancestors

today was cold, when I picked up smallest from school (middle one chose to stay at after school club) we were very chilly. When we got home we snuggled up together on my bed to watch tiny pop I have to confess to dosing off for a few minutes!

Smallest child then had a lovely warm bath, and afterwards I wrapped her in towels which had been warmed on the radiators, sometimes you just got to love the 'cosiness' of winter. On our way out to pick up middle child, it was getting dark - the full moon was covered by clouds, but still visible. Smallest child asked why the moon was all 'smudged' - what a charming way to describe it.

Blog a DAY!

During the Month on November I am going to TRY and make an entry everyday!

O blimey those are bold words!

So here we are 1st November 2009, last night was Halloween or all Hallows eve and the celebration of Samhain for the Pagans out there.

the 2 littlies went out trick or treating to a few friends houses, but we did forget to carve the pumpkin - So Mr.B has done that with the girls this morning and we will use it to welcome our ancestors to the table tomorrow - all souls day

its a really miserable ( did I say miserable? read that as disgusting!) day out there today, lots of side ways rain. But the littlies are full of energy so Mr.B has dressed in puddle busters and gone for a splashingly good walk!

feeling a bit sad today

A couple of days ago I was walking home from the school run (don't get a chance to think on the way to school, let alone look around!) and I saw an amazing formation of fungus (is that the right phrase?) it was growing on the side of the stump of a tree which had been felled earlier in the year. It was beautiful, almost like someone had loosely laid some fabric down in folds.
I made a note to myself to go back and photograph it so I could show you what I was talking about when I blogged it.

But when I went back - some mindless fool had destroyed it, it was in pieces all over the grass - perhaps kicked apart? I don't know, but what a terrible shame that someone can look at something created by nature, something beautiful, something useful and all they can think about is destroying it.

very sad

Reflections

And so the end of my first week as a Student midwife comes to a close, although I feel a lot of student and less of the student midwife right now!
It's been a hectic week, but a real buzz! Today we were told about one aspect of our first year, which is grandly called 'case loading', we are required to 'pick up' a woman (tutors words not mine!) and follow her journey to motherhood. At a booking in appointment I will have to approach a low risk newly pregnant woman and ask if I can follow her through her pregnancy, this will involve attending appointments and scans, hopefully getting a call when she is in labour, and if I am really lucky be with her for the birth. I will be able to be involved in the post natal checks of mum and baby too. This is very exciting and I am really looking forward to starting this.

We are in the throws of 'freshers week' so not much learning is going on, lots of orientation - including today's 'freshers fayre' everything I hate the most in one afternoon. OK well maybe not everything I hate, but a lot of it - young people with no spacial awareness, loud rap music, leaflets being shoved in my hand and just general chaos! But I did get a nice little goody bag from Asda (angel delight yum yum) and joined the midwifery society!

Lots of information to read over the weekend, and gather my thoughts ready for the new week - because then the 'real' learning will begin, and I can start to like a Student Midwife!

Real quicky!

as I am exhausted! day 3 of uni and I am dead on my backside (well we are sitting down a lot!)

Yesterday was just the best day!
first I get an email - my bursary has been sorted!
then tutor says is Mrs. B (or words to that effect) here? would you still like to swap your placement? would I? would I? yes please! I got my first choice placement woohoo!
then we have our uniforms fitted (OK so they aren't something you would wear to club in - but I am soooooooooooooo proud to wear it!)

mind you the emotion of it all must have done for me - bed at 8pm, asleep by half past!

today was a half day *phew* and tomorrow is a self directed study day *ahem*

gush gush gush

Kirsty, Miss Jacques, Mrs Mclean, Mrs Burfot, Brown Owl, Red Squirrel, Kirsty Bird, Mum, Daughter, Wife, Friend, Lover, enemy (not too often I hope) - these are some of the 'hats' I have worn in my time, today I got a new one 'student midwife' - wiv a pinard and everyfink!

Yes, you guessed it, I survived my first day at uni *woohoo*.

to be fair the day was about meeting the rest of the year group and the tutors and finding out about the course, the school, the faculty and the university.

we were given booklets and timetables, tea and biscuits (with the advice it was a one off!), our log books and the - now famous - pinard!

Yesterday my stomach was in knots and I felt sick. This morning at the park and ride car park I wanted to get back in my car and go home, on the bus I had the shakes, on campus I lost all feeling in my fingers! (and breathe!) and then I heard a friendly voice call my name, one of the lads who was on the access course with me was there for his first day too - suddenly everything felt better, especially when he described how he was feeling, and is was exactly the same as me!

obviously I have to go back again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day and it will get harder but what a buzz! tomorrow we are measured for our uniforms and meet our personal tutors.

so I have 3 years to delivery 40 babies, palpate 100 women, examine 100 babies post natally, complete a degree course - and have a life!

ack doddle!

As promised

I have started working my way through the blogs I subscribe to and have fallen woefully behind with in the last few months.
the first one on my list is Being a Mummy. Claire is Mum to toddler boy and baby fifi, she lives in the same city as me and we originally met through the local toy library. She writes about her life surviving as a mummy to 2 young children and her trials and tribulations as she manages to get (just about) through each day!

I love reading Claire's blog, she makes some very interesting observations!

keep up the good work Claire (please?)

A funny vitamins story!

My 4 year old is a funny soul, and she often wanders about in the night - I am not entirely convinced she is always fully awake!
last night Mr.B put her to bed whilst I was in the shower, but an hour or so later the little dot wandered down stairs, muttering something about dolly not sticking!
The first thing I noticed was a multi vitamin tablet stuck to the elbow of her pj's! after a bit more of her vocal ramblings ~ I finally work out what the problem is. She has a 'dolly' a little handmade doll that she loves a lot and 'needs' it to sleep, she often loses dolly during the night so her plan was to put a half chewed multi vitimin (which is very sticky) into her hand and stick dolly to it!
Of course as soon she is asleep and wriggling around the sticky tablet becomes unstuck and dolly falls off!

the things the kids do!

in a mere 7 days

I will be packing my bag, checking my pencil case, shaking with nerves
and getting ready for my first day at university!

o boy I am excited! (and scared!)

I did NOT kill the pigeon!

If you happened to be at Notcutts yesterday afternoon, and you happened to be in their coffee shop at around 4pm, you may have witnessed a terrified pigeon fly over the hedge from the main road and fly slap bang into the window (with enough force to leave an imprint behind!), then fall to the ground.
I was the intrepid soul who scooped up the visibly injured and stressed bird in a cloth and held it firmly and gently in my hands until the lovely lady from the pet department arrived to help.
~Unfortunately whilst I was holding the poor thing, it started twitching and it was obvious it was about to meet its maker (it wasn't struggling just twitching its head) and as we had 3 children with us, I turned my back and walked to the corner of the garden - when the bird had died I turned back and gave it to the pet lady.
It was only after this happened that I realised that turning my back may have looked like I was surreptitiously putting it out of its misery THIS IS NOT THE CASE! the pigeon died quietly and peacefully in my hands.

Big thumbs up to the lovely pet lady who was concerned for the bird and took it away, and to the young lad in the coffee shop who offered me some anti bacterial hand cleanser - well done, quick thinking!

one for the yanks!

Mr. B has a lovely aunt and uncle who live stateside. This is a 'hello' post to Auntie Alison and Uncle Ed.

They haven't had an easy time of it lately - Ed has been very poorly and Alison has had surgery, and I wanted them to know they are ALWAYS in our thoughts and we all send our love.

We haven't seen them for a while (since the wedding in fact) as a trip out to them is just too expensive, and the same for them (and of course Ed being ill)

So hey guys, hang on just waiting for Alison to wheel Ed in to read this too - we love you and miss you loads!

Pleased to report

Another satisfactory Dentist visit! a thorough clean for Mr.B and Me. A fissures sealant on middle daughters poor tooth (her far back bottom molar, an adult tooth, has no enamel!) and nothing for the other two small people!

lots of smiles all round, a few stickers and once again we walk away happy smiley people!

thank you Mr.Jones!

Now Mr.B has gone off to Reading for the weekend (the music festival for those NOT in the know!) can we keep everything crossed for dry weather and unblocked toilet blocks please?

When

the girls go back to school (3rd and 7th September) I am going to take the time to knit a bit, read a bit, sew a bit and most definitely make a cup of tea and drink it hot whilst catching up on a bit of blog reading - I may even share some of the better ones with you (as long as you promise to come back to me please?!)

our weekend away

I can hardly believe that it is our 2nd wedding anniversary already! the day is as fresh in my mind as it was 2 years ago, we really enjoyed ourselves.

This year we celebrated our anniversary with a lovely long weekend away at Hanbury Manor, a Marriott Hotel in Ware.

We save up our Tesco clubcard points throughout the year so that we can have a weekend away, this is the 3rd time we have done it and I had really wanted to go to Hanbury manor. Of course, I was terrified the place wouldn't be everything I hoped for - but it was, and more. the building is lovely (if a bit of a mishmash!)


Our room was cosy, its a Marriott hotel so you can expect a typical standard, but this was a little bit different, a bit more sympathetic to the fact it is an old building, with quite a history. It even had its own little entrance hall (sorry Mr.B it had to be mentioned!)
the only sound we could hear at night was the breeze swaying the trees and the crickets singing.


Breakfast was taken in the Oak dining room, which has a lovely large brick balcony which overlooks the balcony - we were able to sit out there on Monday morning, that is quite something on a lovely day to be eating melon and croissants, drinking freshly squeezed orange juice overlooking such an amazing landscape - how the other half live eh?!

the weekend was spent just lazing around, making full use of the spa facilities by swimming a lot and using the steam room (swimming at 10.30pm on Sunday was fun, especially being the only folks in there and being able to mooch back up to our room in our robes!), we took lovely walks in the grounds and found a nice pub to walk to on the Sunday for a yummy roast dinner.

On our Sunday evening stroll we passed one of the function rooms, lights on and doors wide open, a poor little hedgehog had got confused and wandered in.
Mr.B - my hero - whisked a tablecloth from one of the table and scooped the poor mite up and placed him safely outside, I shut the doors so he didn't wander back in!




I think the most fun we had though was on Monday, we discovered a secret pass time whilst walking along the river Lea on Sunday - Cray fishing! Its seems that stretch of the Lea has a swarm of American Signal Crayfish, carrying a plague which is killing our native crayfish. Of course it is illegal to catch crayfish without a licence, but it is also illegal to throw an American Signal Crayfish back into our native waters.
So Mr.B and me whiled away an hour or so before going home dangling bacon on the end of a piece of thread in the water, every now and then one of the greedy buggers would grab hold and was lifted out - about a dozen in total! Tea was yummy that night, although the girls came dangerously close to naming them all! It took me a while to get my head round cooking them - and Mr.B had to put the first couple in!

yummy chewy multi vits?!

just over a month ago I was asked if my younger children would be willing to try out some vitamin tablets for Haliborange.

my kids have a multivitamin tablet everyday already (our usual is boots own) as well as a couple of omega 3 tablets (from eyeQ), so substituting the different multivit in wasn't a problem.

Kids Multivitamin fruit softies, look like sweets - a good thing for children who don't like tablets I guess. My kids LOVED them! and rather than eating those ones first (as they do with the boots ones to get rid of the flavour with the omega3 tabs!) they have decided they are definitely worthy of the 'last-tablet-to-be-taken' honour!

so well done Seven Seas, a tablet with all the vitamins they need (always a worry when kids can be so picky when eating), attractive to the kids, and taste nice!

my only issue is how sticky they are when the 4 year old takes it out of her mouth to give me a kiss, then puts it back in, then takes it out to drink her milk then puts it back in................... cue hand wash!

A great day out!

Way back at the start of August, we met with some friends from swimming classes, they have a daughter who is a year older than middle child and a son the same age as smallest child.

We decided that if the weather was good we would visit an indoor play centre in Garston called Gambados, we figured if the weather was good it wouldn't be too crowded, and we were spot on.

At first I thought the entrance cost was ridiculously high. To start with you have to pay a £5 registration per family, this is a one off cost though. Then each child has to be paid for and adults are charged at £2.50. This took the total of the visit for me and the 2 smaller children to around the £25 mark!

As you walk through the front door you are greeted by a loud noise - this could be a hen clucking or a baby laughing! Then you are taking up to the main entrance on an escalator with the sweet scent (some could say sickly) of bubblegum! at the top there is another gadget with noise making buttons for the children to press.

once the paperwork and payments are sorted the children (and adults) are released into a fasmantagical (OK its not a word, but don't you think it should be?!) world of wonder. Inside there are bumper cars (children under a certain height can not go on alone, what a shame I had to ride with the demon smallest child!), stationery bicycles which, when cycled fast enough, light up a string of lights on the ceiling. There is a climbing wall (supervised) a soft play area with wavy slide. A soft ball shooting range, a musical area. Giant chalk boards, a sensory room and a dance stage.

A separate room has been supplied for adults, with glass walls so you can see your lovely offspring having fun, inside is a TV, comfy chairs, WiFi for your laptop, or Internet enabled PC's for you to use and magazines and newspapers to keep you occupied.

and on a hot day we were grateful for the air conditioning.

However not very grateful for the completely ruined socks, children have to wear socks but as there are folks walking around in shoes the floor is 'invisibly filthy' and as a result the socks were black by the end of the day.

I have to admit the one thing letting them down is their coffee shop - 'yum yums' - the tea was insipid, the coffee tasted like the kettle needed descaling and, at 12.30, the children's lunch box section was not filled. But we did have lovely jacket potatoes, but again we were lucky we got the last 2. A strange thing to happen at lunchtime!

so was it VFM? My experience was yes, although buying lunch there bumped the price up by another £15! the cost of entry is 'supposed' to be for 2.5 hours, but we were in there for 6 hours! and the children still did not want to leave. It was quiet when we went, but if it had been busy and we were on a timed entry I would have smarted a bit at £25 for 2.5 hours, but I guess its relative to your expectations. The children did not have to queue too long for the climbing wall or the bumper cars, which is always a good thing!

Would we go again? yes but only using one of the many offers available (check their website) or by buying an annual ticket which works out at around £2 per visit if you go weekly. Something we may well think of investing in when my bursary comes through, alongside the annual Whipsnade passes we already have.

To the 'lady' in Morrisons carpark yesterday

I may be a fat cow, but I can go on a diet.
you my dear are stuck with that face forever!

more conversations with a 4 year old

me to her 'whats your favourite vegetable?'
her to me 'little round cabbages'

ahhhh Brussel sprouts then?

Good Game, Good Game!

take one messy bedroom
two stroppy children
and a packet of starburst (opal fruits to all the over 35's!)

count out 'x' amount of starburst, depending on how many jobs to be done.
give each colour sweety a 'task'.
place sweets in a bag.
ask first child to pick a sweet without looking, refer to task chart to see what colour job they have.
when child completes that job they get to eat the sweet and pick out the next one.

result? two happy children, one tidy bedroom and not too many tantrums!

I love it when a plan comes together!

Interestingly

Said small vomitty child is currently running around the house with a Halloween pumpkin bucket on her head.....................................................

Sweet Morning, Sweet Smell?

A morning of two smells, one far more pleasant than the other!

I was awoken at 6.30am by smallest child informing she had been sick. Again. this time all down side of the bed, and over the bedroom floor *sigh*.

Having dealt with all that, I decided that at 7am I would be daft to go back to bed, only to wake again 2 hours later feeling groggy and the kids causing chaos downstairs, so I came downstairs and started ironing - and started to watch ' a beautiful mind' with Russell Crowe. A very good movie, yet quite distressing in places.

I popped out into the garden whilst the iron was warming up and saw that the one remaining sweet pea plant that the slugs had not eaten, had produced some flowers, and of course we all know its important to cut sweet pea flowers to encourage growth. So those four pretty little flowers sat beside me whilst I ironed. The smell is amazing, just four little flowers producing such an intoxicating scent. thank you mother nature!

Cardiff, but couldn't find Capt Jack anywhere!

I want to make this an upbeat blog entry, because we had a fantastic day in Cardiff on Wednesday. However when I logged on to the internet last night I received some heartbreaking and devastating news about a friend. It is personal and I don't feel right sharing it with the world, I couldn't post this entry without giving a mention. they are in my thoughts.

and so Cardiff, very nice place is Cardiff. Although they (Cardiff City council) arent very helpful when it comes to finding somewhere to park!

after finally parking in a car park that cost less than £12 for the day, we set off to find Cardiff Castle to pick up the sight seeing bus. mmmmm easier said than done, Cardiff has an amazing amount of regeneration going on which = lots and lots of building work, which in turn = lots and lots of diversions, paths closed and general confusion!
At least it wasn't raining and eventually we saw the castle in the distance and arrived with only a short detour for a toilet stop and a buy-some-packets-of-crisps- stops!
Aboard the bus (top deck, open air!) we see some of the lovely sights Cardiff has to offer

some fantastic examples of how wonderful everything looks now
and reminders of Cardiffs industrial past.

we were only caught in one downpour on the bus (how surreal, sitting on a bus with your umbrella up!)
but it was so very windy!
We had lunch at the famous Harry Ramsdens (but weren't impressed, and for the only time on the holiday I complained, but that resulted in 50% off the bill which I really cant grumble at. I wont go back to them though!)
We had ice creams looking over Cardiff Bay
We tried to get into the Torchwood unit

and were deleted by cybermen (and exterminated by Daleks, resulting in tears from the small child!)
We admired the magnificence of the millennium centre
and wondered at the beauty of the modern architecture of the welsh assembly debating rooms

strange sights were seen at the Cardiff National Museum

But we struggled to see what all the fuss was about with the millenium stadium
So much was seen and done in Cardiff its hard to remember all of it. Cardiff is a very beautiful city, with amazingly friendly residents. New and old sits side by side with ease




yes all in all Cardiff was a wonderful city, I need to go back - it wasn't possible to see everything in one visit.

the Children were exhausted and slept like angels!

Tuesday

The next day should really have been Wednesday, and then I could have called it a wet Wednesday in Wales. But it wasn’t, it was definitely Tuesday, and the rain was coming down in stair rods, the tops of the hills weren’t visible and it was obvious a steam train ride into the mountains would be a waste of time (and money).

First stop of the day; the good old swimming pool for another hour plus splash around, and a small amount of swimming practice. I sit so far away from where middle daughter has her lessons I hadn’t noticed how good she had got (hard to see what a little pink dot is doing at that distance!) I was amazed to see her whizzing up and down the pool, and swimming under water so well – what a star! Smallest child has now mastered the art of swimming on her back, all be it with arm bands on, but watching her swim with her face under water is a sight to behold; she kind of puts her face under, pushes her bum in the air and pedals her legs like she is on a bicycle!

Hoping the rain would have stopped as the morning wore on, we came out of the pool ready to head off to the train, only to be disappointed to see the rain even heavier than before. With no idea what to do we dashed back to the hotel, I thought perhaps to look on the interweb to see if there are any indoor play barn type thingies around. But as we whizzed past cinema I noticed that they have a morning movie session, just £1.70 a ticket and adults free! Monsters vs. aliens, something we hadn’t seen – and it started in 15 minutes! This was smallest Childs first trip to the cinema, and apart from being a bit scared at the movie was a little star.

Now what do you think would the weather have changed whilst we were in there?! Nope even heavier! A dash across the road to Frankie and Bennies for lunch (yum-blooming-yum) I have never been to one before and was very surprised at the lovely food, good service and fun atmosphere.

Tummies full, we made our way out into the afternoon hoping to get to the train – guess what? Yes you got it still raining!

At this point desperation was setting in (for me) and an excess of energy was setting in (for the kids!) a quick scout round the web found a castle not far from here, which was free to get in Cyrfarthfa castle.

Mmmmmmm rather an interesting little place; lucky it was free as it only killed about 30 minutes! The gardens were lovely (and soggy)

and the views were fantastic (would be better still on a sunny day, you would be able to see top of hills!)

The kids had a great day, middle child thanked me frequently for cinema trip, so not a disaster, but not really the sightseeing day on a train day I had planned!