Ok lets start with what is normal? Its whatever it is to an individual but we obviously have our social expectations of what normal is.
Ive never really fallen into the whole work your 9-5 job pay your mortgage and then retire on your savings. I cant stay in one place for long as it drives me nuts and I am always wanting to move onto the next experience with work and living.
At times this does drive me around the bend. We have been in Nottingham for nearly 6 months and I hate it. My eldest daughter hates it and my youngest doesnt mind it too much but would prefer to be back in Kettering. The major problem being wifey loves it. Its her home town and shes glad to be back.
We are luckier than alot of people as we do have a roof over our heads. The bills are paid and we have food in our bellies. BUT im sure there is something wrong in my head! I cant stay still. I have a massive desire to move on again to the next challenge but fear this will destroy my marriage. I would love to be "normal". To want nothing more than one home in one place with a lifetime in a regular 9-5 looking forward with glee to the traditional 2 week holiday and bank holidays for those extra days off. To have a regular life long group of friends with the set nights out.
I cant do it. I work hard so I can see interesting new places. But I wish at times I could settle into that sort of routine.
Monday, 12 April 2010
Saturday, 3 April 2010
New Leaf
Yes yes yes its been quite some time since my last blog but I really have been busy!
Having read back on my posts the last one was about the chooks arriving. Well we lost one but thats to be expected when dealing with ex battery hens. They are worked so hard in the first year of their lives they can develop all sorts of problems. Still we have the 3 and they now live on the allotment in a new hand built coop and the next stage is to build a 20 ft run for them up there. Then some new meat birds will be added along with a turkey for christmas!
The allotment is now sorted with all the brassicas in along with our spuds! The greenhouse is full of seedlings waiting for a few weeks for the spring to kick in properly. Its so nice to see the new life and growth of food thats going to see you through the best part of the year. Its immensley satisfying to eat your own veg!
My youngest brother was over from Ireland this weekend with his fiance so all the family got together which was fantastic!! Its so rare when there is 6 kids all now grown up to be in the same place all at once! His fiance is lovely and I had to ask if she was just trying to upset her parents by marrying him lol but they do make a great couple. He will be releasing his first album over the next couple of months and if you want a taster take a look at www.davylewis.com as he has a few songs on there already and his first single is for charity so buy the download and do your bit!!
The BIG news is that I have given up smoking. There is a local support type thing that you go to every couple of weeks and they give you tips help etc. Its really good! Its been a couple of days now and im doing great. Im using patches which seem to be doing really well for me. I have to say though that I really was ready to stop. I have been smoking now for twenty years, that was an eye opener when they asked how long and I worked it out!, but it was starting to effect my health. I sounded like an old man in the morning coughing like mad and I was getting out of breath doing the simplist things. Im only 36 so this really really started to worry me.
They say the first few days are the worse but when you are ready to stop and I mean really ready it doesnt make any odds. Ive only had one bad patch when i wanted one and that was on the first day driving home from work. Now that was just habit!! I always had a couple of smokes on the drive home whether I wanted them or not!
Ive tried many times in the past to stop and normally crashed at the first hurdle but it feels so different this time and a good dose of fear of your health helps no end! Watch out for the oxygen rush though that gets you at really strange times...and you dont sleep as much??? I only have 6 hours or so anyway but that seems to have gone down to 5??? Odd!
Having read back on my posts the last one was about the chooks arriving. Well we lost one but thats to be expected when dealing with ex battery hens. They are worked so hard in the first year of their lives they can develop all sorts of problems. Still we have the 3 and they now live on the allotment in a new hand built coop and the next stage is to build a 20 ft run for them up there. Then some new meat birds will be added along with a turkey for christmas!
The allotment is now sorted with all the brassicas in along with our spuds! The greenhouse is full of seedlings waiting for a few weeks for the spring to kick in properly. Its so nice to see the new life and growth of food thats going to see you through the best part of the year. Its immensley satisfying to eat your own veg!
My youngest brother was over from Ireland this weekend with his fiance so all the family got together which was fantastic!! Its so rare when there is 6 kids all now grown up to be in the same place all at once! His fiance is lovely and I had to ask if she was just trying to upset her parents by marrying him lol but they do make a great couple. He will be releasing his first album over the next couple of months and if you want a taster take a look at www.davylewis.com as he has a few songs on there already and his first single is for charity so buy the download and do your bit!!
The BIG news is that I have given up smoking. There is a local support type thing that you go to every couple of weeks and they give you tips help etc. Its really good! Its been a couple of days now and im doing great. Im using patches which seem to be doing really well for me. I have to say though that I really was ready to stop. I have been smoking now for twenty years, that was an eye opener when they asked how long and I worked it out!, but it was starting to effect my health. I sounded like an old man in the morning coughing like mad and I was getting out of breath doing the simplist things. Im only 36 so this really really started to worry me.
They say the first few days are the worse but when you are ready to stop and I mean really ready it doesnt make any odds. Ive only had one bad patch when i wanted one and that was on the first day driving home from work. Now that was just habit!! I always had a couple of smokes on the drive home whether I wanted them or not!
Ive tried many times in the past to stop and normally crashed at the first hurdle but it feels so different this time and a good dose of fear of your health helps no end! Watch out for the oxygen rush though that gets you at really strange times...and you dont sleep as much??? I only have 6 hours or so anyway but that seems to have gone down to 5??? Odd!
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Introducing the ladies.
Well today we have 4 new additions to the family and what comical additions they are!
I went and helped a charity that rescues and rehomes exbatt hens. 3000 in total where taken from their cramped cages and moved on to new homes :) Now thats got to be better than ending up as dog or cat food eh!
What I found really funny was the fact in the barns where the hens are kept in cages there are "ghost" hens. Now of course they are not real ghosts but hens that have escaped from their cages and cannot be caught! As soon as you get near them they scarper under machinary and are un catchable! Just reminded me of the film Chicken Run.
The people that help out the charity are a right old mix from all walks of life which made it fun!
Anyway the ladies are home and settling into their new run and sorting out the pecking order and I had my first egg on the drive home as well which is great :)
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Interesting month
Its been a busy and interestiung month. Theres been mamy highs and some lows in a full on rollercoaster of emotions.
At the start of the month I had no job and severe winter blues. I am happy to say that on both counts the opposite is now true. I had 3 job offers in a week and of course I took the highest paid. So I am now a Dispatch manager for a tree and shrub nursery that sell wholesale to the trade.
If im honest I could see why they hired me as the dispatch side was just chaos. That took a couple of days to sort out but now runs smoothly. The problem with that is I now have not a great deal to do! In fact I am wondering why I have been hired at all because the work load doesnot justify a full time job! There are a other issues as well such as they want me to keep tally on the receptionist's mistakes so they can sack her??? Not my place I feel as she is not my secretary so I will not partake in that at all.
I managed to put my back out at the weekend whilst emptying out my old van. Damn it hurts and I managed to work a couple of days with it but have been laid up for the last two with forced rest as it was just getting worse. Not a good thing in my second week of work.
Im not surprised this has happend as I was pushing myself far too hard to get the allotment and garden sorted before I started work. But the results speak for themselves.
At the start of the month I had no job and severe winter blues. I am happy to say that on both counts the opposite is now true. I had 3 job offers in a week and of course I took the highest paid. So I am now a Dispatch manager for a tree and shrub nursery that sell wholesale to the trade.
If im honest I could see why they hired me as the dispatch side was just chaos. That took a couple of days to sort out but now runs smoothly. The problem with that is I now have not a great deal to do! In fact I am wondering why I have been hired at all because the work load doesnot justify a full time job! There are a other issues as well such as they want me to keep tally on the receptionist's mistakes so they can sack her??? Not my place I feel as she is not my secretary so I will not partake in that at all.
I managed to put my back out at the weekend whilst emptying out my old van. Damn it hurts and I managed to work a couple of days with it but have been laid up for the last two with forced rest as it was just getting worse. Not a good thing in my second week of work.
Im not surprised this has happend as I was pushing myself far too hard to get the allotment and garden sorted before I started work. But the results speak for themselves.
The plot is now clear and the garden is covered in wood chip instead of what was left of the grass!
Our friends had a bouncing baby daughter that weighed in at 5lb 2oz. After many years of trying they finally got the daughter that they wanted after IVF treatment. We were so happy for them as they will be the best parents. Mum and baby did fine and went home the following day.
The trip home was short lived as the next morning the baby was unresponsive with blue hands and feet. She was rushed to the special baby care unit and put into intensive care. There were many problems including fits every few minutes.
This was a nightmare for us and I cannot imagine what our friends were going through. Years of waiting to be so happy and winthin 48 hours stood above their baby in an incubater that they couldnt touch.
She was very very poorly but due to the hard work and dedication of the care team she started to make headway. We are now 4 days on and she is doing brilliantly. She is once again taking milk and the test results are coming back clear with no obvious underlying signs of infection. The fits have stopped and with any luck mum and baby will be home once again next week sometime.
My Dad has returned from the Falkland Islands and we are going to see him this Sunday so that should be a really interesting day with tales of the last 6 weeks and info on the family tree.
The chickens arrive this weekend as well and the run is all ready. It could do with some felt on the roof which I will do on Sat before they are put in there. I am helping the charity out collecting chickens so that should be a good way to meet some new people.
Monday, 1 February 2010
Below is a post of my new Allotment! I think theres more than a bit of work to get this straight LOL
Still before you know it it will be sorted and we will have some superb home grown veg and fruit!
All I need to do is draw up a plan of our plot and work towards it. Does anyone know the best way to get rid of a couple of Foxes? Cant use a gun here in blighty so any ideas are most welcome :)
Still before you know it it will be sorted and we will have some superb home grown veg and fruit!
All I need to do is draw up a plan of our plot and work towards it. Does anyone know the best way to get rid of a couple of Foxes? Cant use a gun here in blighty so any ideas are most welcome :)
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Spring must be coming...the pigeons are at it!
Here we are rushing toward the end of January finally! I have not written much of late because little of anything has been happening!
I didnt want to write about the 2 weeks of snow we had and about how housebound we were because all you had to do for that sort of info was turn on any news channel to be bombarded by idiot presenters freezing thier extremeties off giving continual coverage on the matter!
So I have saved up the feww odds of news for an end of month hit that will take more than 30 secs to write :)
The first news is that my youngest brother is realising a lifelong dream and releasing his first album in May which is fantastic news!!! We are all off to Dublin for the big day and are really looking forward to it! Hot on the back of that news he tells us he is now engaged and getting married next year in Athens which is just the cherry on the cake. I am seriously proud of him :)
He has just released his first track early and is donating all proceeds to the Haiti Earthquake appeal. The track is available for download here :----
http://www.downloadmusic.ie/davylewis/hold-on
Its well worth a £1 so give it a go and see why I am so proud and the fact it is not just my bias!
The hunt for work goes on in earnest and today I went for my second interview to work at Eon the gas & electric company. The job is working in a call center dealing with the debt side of things so could be interesting and a bit of a change in direction for me but should I get through the 3rd and final interview on Monday its mine! It will be soo good to be out earning again and not sitting stewing at home.
Since the snow melted I have cracked on with our excuse for a rear garden and filled a skip with a nightmare of a home made shed, that was full to the brim with rubbish, taken down a home made fence made out of old bedframes and doors and now have put up a new fence and a gate so I can get to my allotment! The new sheds are up and today I finished building the greenhouse frame and securing it to a base. I just need to scrub it down now and fit the glass so hopefully come the end of the weekend I will be ready to start my seedlings off in a few weeks time which is great! I love the spring and all the new life it inspires.
I sat in the city center square today, after my interview, enjoying the early and unseasonably warm sunshine with a cup of coffee and realised that the move up here even though its been harder work wise than we thought was well worth it. I settled my mind with the realisation that I have to let go of what is done ie my business and move forward. So In a weeks time I will be putting my old Transit up for sale and getting wifey a small cheap to run car for the city side of driving. At least that way parking wont be a problem :) I will use the family Vectra and I think my motorbike will have to go as well as its never used and is costing money just sitting there.
Surprisingly I feel no real sadness now about this so it really must be time to move on eh!
So all in all life is on the up, I can get outside again and work is looming upon the horizon. Oh and the warm sunshine has confused the Pigeons...I have never seen such bird pornography outside in full view of all in the city center today and I along with many others just had to laugh at the males convinced they were great whilst the females just looked at them as if to say "I've got a headache"
I didnt want to write about the 2 weeks of snow we had and about how housebound we were because all you had to do for that sort of info was turn on any news channel to be bombarded by idiot presenters freezing thier extremeties off giving continual coverage on the matter!
So I have saved up the feww odds of news for an end of month hit that will take more than 30 secs to write :)
The first news is that my youngest brother is realising a lifelong dream and releasing his first album in May which is fantastic news!!! We are all off to Dublin for the big day and are really looking forward to it! Hot on the back of that news he tells us he is now engaged and getting married next year in Athens which is just the cherry on the cake. I am seriously proud of him :)
He has just released his first track early and is donating all proceeds to the Haiti Earthquake appeal. The track is available for download here :----
http://www.downloadmusic.ie/davylewis/hold-on
Its well worth a £1 so give it a go and see why I am so proud and the fact it is not just my bias!
The hunt for work goes on in earnest and today I went for my second interview to work at Eon the gas & electric company. The job is working in a call center dealing with the debt side of things so could be interesting and a bit of a change in direction for me but should I get through the 3rd and final interview on Monday its mine! It will be soo good to be out earning again and not sitting stewing at home.
Since the snow melted I have cracked on with our excuse for a rear garden and filled a skip with a nightmare of a home made shed, that was full to the brim with rubbish, taken down a home made fence made out of old bedframes and doors and now have put up a new fence and a gate so I can get to my allotment! The new sheds are up and today I finished building the greenhouse frame and securing it to a base. I just need to scrub it down now and fit the glass so hopefully come the end of the weekend I will be ready to start my seedlings off in a few weeks time which is great! I love the spring and all the new life it inspires.
I sat in the city center square today, after my interview, enjoying the early and unseasonably warm sunshine with a cup of coffee and realised that the move up here even though its been harder work wise than we thought was well worth it. I settled my mind with the realisation that I have to let go of what is done ie my business and move forward. So In a weeks time I will be putting my old Transit up for sale and getting wifey a small cheap to run car for the city side of driving. At least that way parking wont be a problem :) I will use the family Vectra and I think my motorbike will have to go as well as its never used and is costing money just sitting there.
Surprisingly I feel no real sadness now about this so it really must be time to move on eh!
So all in all life is on the up, I can get outside again and work is looming upon the horizon. Oh and the warm sunshine has confused the Pigeons...I have never seen such bird pornography outside in full view of all in the city center today and I along with many others just had to laugh at the males convinced they were great whilst the females just looked at them as if to say "I've got a headache"
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