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5月10日 Our lovely anniversaryFor our anniversary James and I went away to the Cotswolds for a couple of days.
We set off on the Sunday, a little (a lot!) later than planned due to some over-indulgence on the alcohol front the evening before. What woke me up on the Sunday morning was the sound of James decorating the toilet bowl! But that's another story...
We went in the Z of course, and driving it along those little country lanes past those chocolat box cottages was just great.
The hotel was just lovely and we had the room with the four poster bed, which was massive (the room, not the bed!). Lovely old building and really well done out.
On the first evening we found a cute little place for dinner, and quite bravely we were the first to go in and eat, but it turned out really well in the end as the food was lovely.
On the day of our anniversary we had a lovely big breakfast before setting out to Batsford Arborretum, the falconry centre and then on to Sudeley Castle. It was a really lovely day, and we got back in time to have a nice relaxed shower and get ready for our evening in the hotel restarant. We celebrated with a bottle of champagne and when our desserts came out the chef has written "happy anniversary" on the side in chocolate. Ahhhhhh!
We came back slowly on the Tuesday and enjoyed the rest of our day, finishing off in the traditional manner with a Cginese take away! Well, it was our anniversary!!
Ni   4月20日 Nearly a year already!Wow - on Monday James and I would have been married a whole year!! It's come round so quickly - it seems like only yesterday that we were tying the knot, and then jetting off to Barbados! We're off to the Cotswolds for a couple of days to chill out, and we can't wait for our break! 4月12日 House searchWell, James and I have decided that we're going to take the plunge and up the mortgage to some ridiculous amount that will mean staying in for the next few decades. We're now looking for the home that will hopefully be our family home, and we will stay in for the next however many years. It's exciting but nerve-wracking at the same time, because we're planning to stay in this one long-term, so we have to get it right. Still, it's good fun nosing around other people's houses all the same.
It really does make you appreciate what you've got though - even in our little two-bed mid terrace I swear we have more parking and more outside space than some of the four beds we're looking at. Quite frightening really. And it seems that every house we see online and think "Wow, this one looks amazing..." there's always something "wrong" with it, like it's at the bottom of the busiest, most cramped cul-de-sac on the entire estate, or it's had a really dodgy extension/conversion/conservatory, or it backs directly on to a really busy main road... Oh well, we'll keep on looking; it's not as if we're in a despirate rush - we'd rather get it right first time than rush into something, realise our mistake and have to go through the whole process again.
Hopefully our place will be on the market soon and someone will love it. In fact, I'm sure someone will, because I do! In a way I'll be really sad to leave my little house. It was my own home for nearly four years living on my own before I shared it with James for a year, and for me it marked a turning point in my life, when I became truly independent and self-reliant. I loved living on my own, but I'm loving being married too, and I'm really looking forward to the next stage of our lives, despite the scary mortgage payments!!
N
1月8日 The January resolutions have started!Well, over the weekend we played badminton - which neither of us were particularly looking forward to, I think, before we go thre. But we had a really good time with Steve and Hayley, and a good work out, plus we were all pleasantly surprised at how we were still OK-ish, and we got some good rallies in!
When we got back home I decided to put on my hotpants workout DVD and did the cool down routine, and then did all the stomach crunches too! So consequently my arms and stomach muscles really hurt now!
However, it wasn't all good over the weekend. Karen and Debs came over, and we had veggie lasagne (which was surely better than take away??) and lots of booze (which wasn't!).
The next thing I think we need to do is to get more sleep - starting with getting to bed tonight!
Nic  1月6日 In defense of Murphy...Seeing as James always puts up nasty things about Murphy and rabbits in general, I thought I'd just say a few nice things about him and give you a few cute pictures to look at. Reasons why I love Murphy:
So there you have it - my friend and companion - Murphy! N 12月17日 Just about ready for Christmas!With just over a week to go I feel more organised this Christmas than I have done for years, and I'm really looking forward to spending some time with the family.
I got most of my shopping done in one day (finished off the rest yesterday), wrote my cards in time to post them second class, and we've even done the kitchen floor!! (Check out Jim's space for pics and a report!)
My new year's resolutions for 2007 are definitely going to revolve around getting more exercise and getting fitter. I may even take up running again, something I've been threatening to do for ages!
2007 is set to be another exciting year for us. We're planning on moving, but first there's lots I'd like to do to the house and garden, to make sure we get a quick sale. Our next house will hopefully be the one we'll stay in for a while, so it's quite exciting mapping out our future together!!
 Happy Christmas everyone!
Nic  10月14日 A tribute to PaulThree-time Masters snooker champion Paul Hunter lost his battle with stomach cancer on Monday 9th October. This news has saddened me deeply - and today would have been only his 28th birthday. Paul aged with my brother (who was 28 on Tuesday), and so this has really hit home, and my heart goes out to his wife and daughter at this desperately sad time.
Paul was a truly great snooker player, so entertaining to watch, and he will be missed.
Rest in peace Paul.
Mini Italian Job ExperienceI finally went on my driving experience (a 30th birthday pressie from my mum) last weekend, and it was fantastic!
I woke up feeling groggy with the beginnings of a cold (that I still have!), so after a couple of paracetamols I was ready to roll. Mum and Karen came too, so we all got up at the crack of dawn to make the trek up to Leicestershire.
The first hour or so involved a lot of waiting around. We had our drivers' briefing and then had our photo taken next to a rather nice Mini Cabriolet. The we were separated into groups and my group were asked to go and find a helmet.
Our first activity was to have a ride in a Mini Cooper S with an instructor. They took you round the track and showed you the lines to take. We didn't go too fast as had to give way to the Lambos and Astons that were also on track. Then we waited our turn to drive the Mini ourselves. What was great is that you had an instructor guiding you round the track, telling you when you need to brake, encouraging you to go faster and get your confidence up. That was my main problem - confidence - but by the end of the session I was really getting the hang of it! And my claim to fame? I overtook an Aston Martin DB9! Admittedly, the guy driving was on his first lap and I was on my last, but I'll take that one, thank you very much!
 Next up was the bit I was probably looking forward to the most - driving the E Type Jag. James was doing his David Bailey impession as I stepped in to the driver's seat, and as I was posing for the shot I was just desperate to sit in the car!!
As I got in the smell that filled my nostrils was that wonderful old car smell. That mix of leather, wood, oil and WD40! There's no other smell like it! I took off by giving her a little bit too much gas (as I was afraid of stalling), but soon got the hang of her and the gear changes were fine. Because, like a true old car, you had to change gear around the track - they're not like the modern cars where it doesn't really matter which gear you're in. These babies are real drivers' cars.
I was probably more cautious in the Jag than I was in the Mini, as she just commanded respect. They have the rear view mirrors so that the instructor can see what's behind rather than the driver, which is really disconcerting, and so I found myself looking in the wing mirror to keep an eye on those Astons and Lambos!
James has a brilliant photo of me coming out of the E-Type with the biggest grin on my face - the photo says it all, I absolutely loved it!
The final thing on track was to have a high speed passenger ride in a Cooper S. The guy told me that the only difference between the Mini I drove and the one he drove is this one had different brake fluid, but apart from that it was totally bod standard. It sounded amazing!! He flew around the track, pushing it more and more each lap as he could see I was totally enjoying myself. We overtook everything, Lambos and Astons and the E-Type and even a Porsche! Fabulous fun!
 After our time on the track we were taken to a different part of the estate, where the eight drivers took it in turns to manoveur a 52-seater bus around a set of cones. What a scream! The steering wheel was massive and so I had to feed it through my hands like I was on a driving lesson. But I didn't know any cones over. The weirdest thing was when I turned the bus round for the next person to have a go - because the front wheels are actually behind the driver's seat it feels like you're going sideways - a most bizarre feeling!
The last part of the day was an auto test with the Mini Cabriolet which we had had our photo taken with earlier in the day. This was a low-speed course that involved slaloms and going over a bridge. I was the last to go but I didn't mind waiting one bit.
All in all I had a brilliant day. Thank you mum for a most excellent present, I would love to do another experience day and I don't think I'm the only one - James, mum and Karen all fancied having a go I think!!
Check out the pics on James's space - Monkey Trousers - and check out my little excited face!!
I absolutely loved it!!!!!
Beautiful baby girlA huge congratulations to Nicky and Neil, who now have a beautiful baby daughter, Emily Jane.
James and I were lucky enough to go and visit Emily and Nicky when they were still in hospital. My worry was that James would be very broody, but what I didn't bank on was how soppy and emotional I got! I blubbed several times during the space of our 90 minute visit!
I'm so pleased for you Nicky and Neil, and Emily is just perfect.
We popped in to see them briefly again today, to give them their pressies. We made a box for Emily with the top 5 singles, top selling adult and children's books and newspapers from the day she was born. Plus we made a sheet giving facts such as "on this day in history" and "who you share your birthday with". Now it was Nicky's turn to get emotional - bless her! Hopefully it will be a lovely keepsake for when Emily is older. I wonder how much the world will change from now until when she is old enough to look at it...
8月17日 Horrific injuryButton injured in horrific F1 accident!!
Don't look if you have a weak stomach!!!!
8月2日 Our day at Silverstone ClassicI was lucky enough to get some tickets for the Silverstone Classic event on Sunday through work (what a perk!), so James and I set off mid-morning. We arrived in time for lunch and, as we had ocrporate hospitality tickets, we headed straight for the box, where lunch had just been put out (we must've smelt it!).
We ended up watching a vintage Aston Martin race and a historic F1 race from the balcony, right on the pit lane entrance and start-finish straight (for this event they used to old "classic" Silverstone track). It was great seeing all the old Maclarens, Brabhams and Lotuses from when I first started watching F1, and then even further back, the beautiful old Lolas and even older Coopers... What ever happened to all that British racing heritage??
It was great fun, nice and loud (although I'm sure nothing compared to an F1 race nowadays!). We also walked round to Abbey and to Club, where we sat and watch a pre-1961 F1 race before going home.
We saw lots of lovely cars on show on the club stands, including some lovely AC Cobras, BMC ex-works vehicles (including Minis!), and I particularly enjoyed the Marcos stand. Love the looks on those cars!!
 All in all it was a great day, although we were shattered by the time we got home and had to order a Chinese as we couldn't be bothered to cook!
 N Great English IconsA number of things have been voted as English "Icons" in a new website - www.icons.org.uk.
Making the list is fish and chips, the Lake District, Sherlock Holmes, hedges (??????????) and of course the Mini. When you visit the site you are encouraged to vote for your favourites or suggest new ideas. Funnily enough, I didn't see Chicken Tikka Masala listed - perhaps a new suggestion?
N 7月27日 Charmin's new advertising campaignToilet humour at its best - love it! And not one of those fluffy bears in sight!! Enjoy!
 6月29日 Nicola "Clumsy Oaf" Dawson!A funny thing happened to me the other day...
We were sitting on the sofa on Tuesday night, chatting, when I suddenly remembered I needed to show James my wage slip. This was not, unfortunately, due to the fact that there was a massive error in the Avis accounting system and they had actually paid me the wages of the MD by mistake. It was because it is one of the few places where I have actually changed my name from Wapshott to Dawson and, as James is always on at me to get my name changed, I was very eager to show him.
So, I was on my way back from my handbag to the sofa (a distance of around two paces), when my foot suddenly made contact with the glass that was on the floor. The glass was empty, and just moments before it had housed cranberry and raspberry juice (not even wine! Not even anything with any sugar in!). Unfortunately, the angle at which my foot made contact and came down on the glass made it crack, nay shatter, and before I knew it there was glass all over the floor, and my dark scarlet blood dripping all over my pale beige carpet.
Amazingly, James went very pale, probably because I had a sock on and he was convinced I'd severed my toe. This had the effect of making me incredibly calm, and I took control of the situation. However, as James calmed down I started to go into shock at the realisation that I'd lost a fair amount of blood.
We called NHS Direct, who suggested that we go to the hospital to get the foot checked out, in case there were any bits of glass left either in the puncture wound on the pad near the little toe or in the scraped up skin in the bridge of my foot. So off we went.
We didn't have to wait long to be seen, but they made me sit in a wheelchair to go down to X-Ray (I didn't even know glass showed up on X-Rays until then!), which was highly embarrassing because the porter insisted on dragging me backwards through the enpty corridors without saying a word to me! I felt like such a fool!
I got into X-Ray first (managed to jump the queue past this poor guy who had a really sore-looking hand, and he had to walk to X-Ray, even though he was clearly in more pain than I was!) and had two X-Rays on my foot. Then I had to wait whist they were being developed (do X-Rays get developed like photos?), and I was sitting in my wheelchair (by this time I was getting used to being wheeled around!) waiting for the silent porter. That was when I noticed them, hanging up on the wall, four odd-shaped pieces of what looked like black rubber, all the same shape but of various sizes. Then I innocently read the the sign they were hanging from. It said, "King's Lynn Gonad Shields". THEY WERE SHIELDS FOR B*LL*CKS, IN VARYING SIZES!!! Can you imagine: "I'm sorry Mr Smith, we need to X-Ray your upper thigh but we only have the shields in plum, orange and melon sizes. I can give you a shoe horn to make sure that you get them all in..."
 Well, I was sitting in my chair, trying not to laugh my socks off (or should I say "sock" because the other one was on the carpet at home covered in blood, and we were later to discover that it had become attached to the carpet fibres with the dried blood - nice!), when the silent porter came along, and I was unceremoniously wheeled backwards out of the X-Ray room and off down the corridor.
The upshot of it was that there was no glass (thank goodness - really didn't fancy them digging about with the tweezers!), but the X-Ray did reveal that years ago, when I damaged my ankle and tore the ligaments about 15/16 years ago leaving Annabelle's house (remember, Annabelle??), I actually fractured my ankle too. A very small fracture, and they wouldn't have done anything had they found it at the time, but even so, I now know why it was so damn painful at the time!
All in all, it made a change to sitting in front of the telly all evening, especially when we got back and had to give the carpet a good old scrub with the Vanish... what a fun thing to do at 11pm at night!!
N 6月22日 Excellent site for music-loversI've had this thought in the past - why don't music sites recommend similar music to those artists you're interested in and let you listen to it? The boss told me about this excellent site today, whereby you can type in any artist or song title and it plays similar music based on the type of instruments, tone, mix etc. You can even teach it which songs you like by voting on whether or not you like the selection. And the best thing about it - it's completely free!
Check it out - www.pandora.com
N  Thought for the day...Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach forthe good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead,they sometimes take the apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy. The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who is brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.
Now Men... Men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp the sh!t out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.
Fairly accurate I think!! 6月21日 Middlesborough FC are officially great!My updates are like busses - none for ages and then three come along at once!
This is really good - this guy's applied for the manager's position at Middlesborough FC. His application is really funny, but MFC's response is just brilliant! Take a look:
The whole site is a great idea actually - this guy turned 25 recently and has a big long list of things he wants to do before he's 30. It makes great reading if you have a spare few minutes!
Nicola Toyota flies the flag for En-ger-land!Pretty impressive really - these are hundreds on Toyota Yarises! They parked them up at their Derbyshire factory to show their support for the "boyz"
  First entry in a whileThought I'd get back to writing something.
A lot's happened in this past year - I've got married, been on honeymoon, now share my house with my new hubby, been promoted at work... loads!
Will try and get the site more updated as James is putting me to shame!
N 8月1日 Still at work...I've worked out that I must be doing something wrong. Here I am, at gone 7pm, the last one on the whole of the floor, still working, when everyone that gets paid more than me has gone home long ago!
 Anyway, I have definitely learned (through my experience and through a course I went on two weeks ago!) that an assertive, calm and adult approach is the way forward in these situations; not showing your emotions but telling people how you feel, and being neither aggressive nor passive: not backing down on what you want but not forcing the issue too much. I have raised my concerns to my superiors and it looks like I'm going to get the support I need! Plus I'm being more vocal about my achievements, which never does any harm!
Don't let 'em get you down! Stand up for yourself; it's working for me so far!
 (These little smileys are great!!) |
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