september 17

September. In one easy to understand repeat pattern.

car insurance rip off

I spent the afternoon sorting out my car insurance. It was going to automatically renew tomorrow. I could delay no longer.
I put it off last year till it was too late and it just renewed. At a price they obviously made up for a laugh to see if anyone would be stupid enough to pay it.
I was.
This year I forced myself to sort it out. 
The price they pulled out of a hat to charge me for the year was an eyewatering £1483.18. I have 10 years no claims discount. I drive a Mini. NOT a Ferrari. I have been driving for over 30 years. I don't live in an inner city theft hotspot. And I am NOT a boy racer. The only other person named on the policy is a god-damned driving instructor. Who moans if I go one mile an hour over the speed limit.
I braced myself and spent a good half hour answering stupid questions on comparethemeerkat.com. (Other price comparison websites are available. But I couldn't remember who they were. And I was secretly after a soft toy.)
It came back with a somewhat surprising result.
The best price they could recommend was from ESURE. The company I have been bloody well insured with for at least the last 5 years. Probably a lot more. The company who wanted to charge me one thousand four hundred and eighty three quid. 
The meerkat quote was £374.97!! A quarter of the price!
The robbing bastards!
I phoned Esure up immediately and had a proper hissy fit with some poor bloke called Alex. Alex said he didn't know how that could possibly have happened and he adjusted my renewal accordingly... to £363.44.
Cheeky sods! If I hadn't checked they would have been laughing their bloody heads off and no doubt drinking champagne all week.
Thanks Meerkat. It was half an hour well spent. Even if I didn't get the toy in the end.

driving lessons

It's our little princess's birthday today. She's 17. Which can only mean one thing. Obligatory first driving lesson. As luck would have it the other half is a driving instructor. Like an actual real life instructor. Not just a dad who thinks he knows what he's on about. He really DOES know his parallel parking from his left reverse.
So that's gonna be a right laugh. They argue at the best of times anyway. It's gonna be all out fisticuffs now till she passes her test. I might go live with my mum and dad for the duration ....

colour rush

The highlight of the youngest's weekend, indeed the highlight of his year, was volunteering at Kirkwood Hospice's annual Colour Rush. This is our third year as volunteers. My sis and my friends and the eldest and the other kids always run in it. I'm not a runner. Ever. So I decided to volunteer instead. The youngest, motivated by the idea of chucking paint at people, decided to volunteer too.
We totally rocked it on the merchandise stall this year, then legged it down to one of the paint stations. We spent a happy hour throwing purple paint at people. What's not to love.
Same again next year 👍🏻

crammed weekend

Another ram-jam-packed-full weekend has left me somewhat exhausted and in desperate need of an early night. Unfortunately part of the ram-jam-packed-ness involved me inadvertently getting the eldest a job while I was in the pub on Friday night. Clearing tables and collecting glasses. She had a trial yesterday and started today. 3 till 10pm. That's TEN PM. On a Sunday night. When I should be curled up on the sofa with wine. Or in bed. 
So... no early night and no wine for this mum's taxi service tonight...the joy of parenthood... 

smile, it could be worse...

I need a new passport. And I really need to get my finger out and send for it pretty soon. I've got the form. I've got a friend to sign the form. And I've got a photo.
The trouble is it's a crap photo. I had it taken for my Chinese visa in June. It's not the sort of photo you would wish to be stuck with on an important travel document for the next ten years. But I don't think having it retaken is gonna help. Turns out I look pretty old and ugly when I don't smile. And smiling is banned by the passport office. This photo is as good as it's gonna get.
Maybe in 10 years I won't think I look so old.....

sweater weather

Time to get the jumper out. And wear it every day. For the rest of the year. And beyond.
I am sooo counting down to our hols. 14 weeks on Wednesday.
A couple of weeks away from the woolly pullies. Woohoo!

teenage jet lag

The eldest finished her exams in mid June and basically did naff all for the entire summer. She went to bed late and got up late. Every day. By the time she went back to school last week her body clock was in a totally different time zone. Somewhere in the mid Atlantic I'd say.
She has therefore found the transition into sixth form that bit more difficult. Dragging her grumpy arse out of bed at 7am has not been an easy, or pleasant, task. It all got too much for her yesterday. I thought she was a bit quiet. I went upstairs to investigate at 7.30pm. I found her fast asleep on her bed. Fully dressed. She's clearly suffering from extreme jet lag 🙄
So now it's the weekend. She can stay up late. And get up late. And we can do it all again next week. Yay. 

actually christmas is in DECEMBER so lay off the festive cheer...

People who post Christmas shiz all over instagram in September. Idiots. That is all.

domestic goddess

When you're supposed to be doing the cleaning on a Saturday but you nick off with your sis and 5 kids and spend a lovely day in the park instead ...and put the cleaning off till Sunday. Then when Sunday arrives you nick off with the other half and the kids and go to Salts Mill instead ...and put the cleaning off till later. Then later you sit in your office and make an elephant pattern to fool yourself that you're working...

Then it gets to Sunday night and you can fool yourself no longer. So you decide to just clean the bathroom as a token gesture. But you faff about with a little blog post first. That.

autumn

Autumn doesn't mess about does it? September arrives and so does Autumn. Like whoa here I am, get your jumper on.
Not like Spring. Spring faffs about. Spring comes for a day in March, gets you all excited, then buggers off till May. Comes back for a few short bursts and then is never seen again. 
I quite like Autumn. At least you know where you are with Autumn. You can put the flip flops away and know that you defo won't be needing them again till next year. You can get the black jumper and the converse out, safe in the knowledge that that's your uniform till Spring pops it's random head round the clouds again. You have no expectations in Autumn. You know it's gonna be mainly cold, grey and miserable so you just get on with it. And cheer loudly whenever the sun comes out.
So keep smiling folks...and treat yourself to a new sweater...next stop ...Winter x

ski school

The youngest has this lesson once a week called "Applied Resilience" It's a made up subject with a made up name. They get a choice of topics they would like to study for the year. This year's choices involved such classics as "Costume Creations" (drawing clothes) "Learn through Film" (watching telly) "Construction" (woodwork) and "Thought Republic" (arguing)
He didn't choose any of the above.
Why would he when "Ski School" was on offer?
For a tenner a week someone drives them to Chill Factore in Manchester and they get to spend the afternoon messing about on the slopes.
Beats Maths I suppose.

back to school

School starts tomorrow. 
It's:
Yay to having the house back to myself during the day.
Yay to being able to get on with some work in peace.
Yay to only having to feed myself. Or not. Usually not.
Yay to other people not assuming that as I'm at home during the school hols I must be some sort of lady of leisure, available for impromptu chats and small errands.
But:
Boo to having to set the alarm for stupid o'clock.
Boo to having to drag myself out of bed. Then drag everyone else out too.
Boo to rushing about like an idiot on a morning and screaming about teeth and shoes and homework.
And boo to the 8 million quid I just spent in Topshop, kitting the out eldest for sixth form.
Swings and roundabouts, people, swings and roundabouts.

full house

We have a very full house tonight.

The youngest is having a sleepover. It's for his birthday. Which was last week but everyone was on bloody holiday then. Like we normally are. Like we will be again next year. Cos having a birthday at home when all your mates are away is a bit crap.

Anyway, we took them to the cinema to pass a bit of time. But now we're back and they're all a bit manic. The other half and I have legged it to bed and left them to it downstairs.

We have earplugs. 

We're gonna need them......

august 2017

This was August.
Quite productive considering I was sat on my arse in Spain for over 2 weeks.
I'm pretty sure I don't usually manage an August.
Yay me.