A Matter of Choice

There is a possibility that some in  my situation would find this weeks Gallery prompt a little tricky.  Given that I have recently blogged about my wedding , Leo's Christening,  and my birthday , not to mention a whole year in Cyprus  and Leo's birthday , you would be forgiven for thinking that I'd run out of celebrations to write about. This is me though and for those that know AJ and I, you will know that we never need a reason to celebrate. I have been going through old photos - (a most enjoyable pastime of mine!) and have still managed to change my mind several times. I've still got so many to choose from so I thought I'd go festive. This was taken on Christmas Eve back in 2005. A group of us, pre-babies had decided to go out in our local town and thought we'd dress up just for the hell of it! Note that AJ (the biggest fancy dress fan EVER) still manages to be different!) We certainly made an entrance as we all walked into the pub..... ...

Check out the other Silent Sunday  entries at  Mocha Beanie Mummy's blog

This post was published way back in 2010 but I'm sharing it again J enny & Lauren's Flashback Friday This time last year it was our third day  in our new home,  and our apartment looked like this.... Our bedroom! We were very lucky that are stuff arrived so fast, as we only had the contents of 3 suitcases which is not that helpful when you have a 6 month old baby. Also in the container of our things was Leo's cot, hence why he spent his first night in Cyprus like this.... He seemed slightly confused when he woke up but not too bothered!  Unpacking didn't take too long, although a year later I'm still occasionally moving things about that weren't quite right. I think we settled in reasonably quickly considering we didn't just move a few miles down the road. We were very lucky in meeting people very quickly, and in the fact that AJ joined the local pool team straight away helped this as well.  The first few month were strange,...

I loved seeing all the posts on last weeks Gallery so this week I thought I'd  continue in a similar vein but using the prompt for this week which is Black and White. I give you two generations of happy families..... and jumping forward about 30 years (30 years.....how did that happen!)......

I need a plan, I need a plan so we can get some more sleep. I will Google a solution in a minute, but first I will have a little rant and share with my lovely readers....lots of whom are Mums of various age children and might just give me some useful advice. Leo does not sleep through the night, he did for a while but that seems like a distant memory right now. As a small baby he went to bed at 7pm, fed like clockwork at 11pm, 3am then waking at 7am - perfect. At that time I admit I did slightly look forward to the days when he would drop the 3am feed, now I wish we were still on that routine as it was better than were we are 18 months down the line. Where did I go wrong? I'm fairly sure I know, the question is how the hell do I get out of this? By the time he was 6 months old he was sleeping through some nights, he usually still had an 11pm ish bottle but that was fine. Then we had some time staying with friends before our move to Cyprus. He was teething and unsettled and I ...

One of this weeks Writing workshop prompts is Red - something this colour inspires in you.  If you saw my recent Gallery entry for the same prompt you will already know what this colour means to me. 20th August 2004 6.30am.  I woke up in the spare room at my parents house and thought 'wow I'm getting married today.... ' I managed a little more sleep, conscious of the fact it was probably going to be  long day. My bridesmaid Sarah  and I went to the shop for a chance to smoke so early in the morning without my Mum telling me of f for breakfast supplies. Dad was in charge of bacon rolls while the rest of us decided on a plan for use of the bathroom! The hairdresser was late, so late I was getting a bit concerned, I rang and she had the wrong address. I was hugely worried I'd have to wear my hair down but she made it in the end. Apart from that the morning had been very peaceful, I was calm but very excited, Sarah on the other hand was terrified! Th...

When I saw this weeks Gallery prompt I may have had a little moan at the timing of it, the prompt was "Before and After" For the last few years I've often shown my before and after pictures but I used them both in  my Slimming World post . So I got thinking and when that didn't help I started browsing through my old pictures and came up with my gorgeous dogs.  Well, I say mine but they were both working police dogs - a fact I was often reminded of as a child when I tried to teach them pointless tricks or ask to walk them.  Traka, (the black one) was my Dad's 3rd police dog, as he approached retirement (the dog, not my Dad!) Dad was allocated a puppy to train as his successor. This was way back in 1994 and I was beside myself with excitement when he brought the little ball of fluff that was Acer home. After Acer had his training, Traka retired and we got to keep him as a pet dog. (and I got to finally take a dog for a walk on my own!) He was a ...

 I feel very privileged to have received another award, this time from a fellow blogger in Cyprus - Vanja from Emma's Lunch , and I must say what a lovely name she chose for her daughter! Rules for accepting this award are:   1. Thank & link back to the person who awarded you this. 2. Share 7 things about yourself. 3. Pay it forward to 15 recently discovered great bloggers. 4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their award. So, here's seven (fairly random) things about me..... 1. I have had 11 different jobs, I think it's 11, although I may have forgotten about one or 2 along the way! 2. I have had my poetry published in a book. 3. I have had a tattoo designed for me, which I will soon be having done. 4. I shouldn't buy Chocolate Spread as I always end up eating it straight out the jar. 5. My favourite film, and I have no idea why is Towering Inferno! 6. I have just applied to start Greek Lessons in the new year.  7. I...

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I took this photo two years ago, in October. We were away for the weekend on my in-laws narrow boat and I was thrilled to have good weather.  There lies  my problem with Autumn, in theory it's a gorgeous season, the sun low in the sky, streaming through the trees, piles of fallen leaves looking all pretty. In reality though I usually found it was cold, probably wet and often that really fine drizzle where you get soaked to the skin. I know, I am very fussy with my weather ! I've never been the type to really embrace anything other than "good weather" when it comes to the great outdoors. So, I am now glad to be out and about in the autumn. The days are lovely here now, warm enough to enjoy in a t-shirt and cool enough that you can go out walking and not want to collapse in a heap after five minutes.It also means we have the beaches to ourselves now the tourists have gone home.  This post was written for this weeks Gallery entry. The prompt this week ...

This weeks Gallery was very tricky, yes I do realise I often say that but the problem this week was slightly different. You see the prompt was "Show me the funny" as usual I have a whole host of photos I could use, and a hundred funny stories to go with them.  When you have been to the amount of adult only Butlins weekends as we have and held as many parties with our mad bunch of friends it's inevitable really. My favourite is a friend of our dancing in his boxer shorts at a fancy dress party we had, holding a bottle of champagne in one hand. I also have a whole series of photos taken over a couple of years of a friend posing with cleaning cones - it turned into a tradition every time we went away! I could go on and on. The reason I haven't used them is the fact that although I may be in a different country now but I think those involved may jump on a plane and come and slap me round the head. Instead I give you.... These were taken back in March wh...