happy birthday to me

It's my birthday but I shall be spending the morning flirting with customers at work this morning, who knows what the rest of the day holds for me.

Hoping I hear from Romeo today but I won't be holding my breath.

Suffering

I spent my last £5.00 on petrol to get to work this morning. The gas to keep the house warm ran out on Monday. By this morning we only had 1pint of milk left. SF had promised the boys he would take them out and treat them to lunch today as it is not only his day off but also payday. Oh that’s good when they see him he can pass on the money he pays towards their food.

When I get home from work I found that the boys have not seen their father, other than a brief few minutes early in the morning to check my baby’s bicycle to make sure it is working properly. My baby and his new senior school friends have been riding to the beach every day this week approx 4 miles. At this rate he will soon lose some of the weight he has gained since giving up playing football due to his foot problems. So no money for food or anything. Ok we will just have to get by until the morning when I get my Child Tax Credits, that just about covers the rent and a few other bits but not much.

Luckily during the evening SF rings the boys to talk about seeing them on Saturday now!! Why does he always do this? At least now the boys have got used to being let down they don’t take it so personally. I tell him that I need money to buy heat and food. He tells me to collect him from his new home, drive him to ATM then take him home again. This all takes about 20 minutes. He reeks of cigarette smoke, I had almost forgotten what that was like. He hands me the £100.00 for the boys food for a month (it’s the school holidays they eat that much in a week!!). He also gives me another £20 ‘as it’s your birthday’. But eeewww I had to suffer a kiss for that. I managed to escape with just a sloppy peck that left me feeling dirty with a wet smear on my cheek beside my mouth. Desperately, wanting to wipe my face clean, without appearing unkind. Why does he want to kiss me these days? He was never interested in kissing during the 19 yrs we were a couple.

Once I had dropped him off I went to but some Gas, petrol and milk. To my astonishment there was a young woman in the shop who I had passed on my way there. She had with her a pushchair with a child not much more than a year old and another a girl of about 4 dressed only in pyjamas. This was 8.30pm on a cold night. The mother was chastising the little girl for crying demanding to know why she was crying and telling her to wipe away the tears. The poor little mite must have been frozen; I think I would have wanted to cry if I had to walk any kind of distance in my pyjamas when it was so cold. Both children were given a finger of fudge to keep them quiet while the mother purchased a pack of beer. I was full of all sorts of emotions about this.

My first reaction would be to make sure that the child was not suffering unnecessarily. The second is a fear of interfering in a situation that I know nothing about. I have no idea how far they had walked or how far they had to walk to get home. I have no idea why the mother had brought these children out on a cold night, why the little girl did not have on a coat or gloves, why she was crying. I do not know what I could have done. If I had tried to phone any of the authorities, who should I phone and what could I tell them. I didn’t know who this family were or where they live. By the time anyone could have arrived they would have been long gone.
Had it just been the child and her mother I could perhaps have offered them a lift home. I couldn’t have got that huge pushchair in my car, but I did contemplate offering to try.

These episodes of suffering for whatever reason reinforce my sense of well being and knowledge that no matter how bad things become there are many out there who are so much worse off than I am.

Only a half day at work tomorrow as I had planned to pamper myself in readiness for seeing Romeo in the evening but now thatisn't going to happen I have been requested to present myself at my mother's house in the afternoon. I am hoping with everything I have in me although I am not holding out much hope, that I will get a phone call from Romeo. He has surprised me the last few nights by chatting online just as I was about to go to bed. But as yet I have not heard from him tonight and now it looks unlikely that I shall ge to chat to him as even if he gets online I won't be here........................Taxi was the call in my ear just minutes ago so a drive into the City is now imminent as the last train was apparently leaving the station as DC arrived there!!! He will never learn.

Dogs, Cats , children and more

Should I get a Dog ....


...or have children?


Just might be better to get a cat!

Isn't Nipper a sweetie?

she's so sweet that she makes my eyes water,

my nose itch and my throat sore

The kids know that when she is gone there will be no more cats in my home. But until then and she is only 11 years old I try not to have too much contact with her.

Last night I was chatting to Traveller, I have not mentioned him before, we have been chatting online on and off for about 18 months. He is a few months older than me, and lives in the Other City not far from me. He is not a British national but has lived here for years I don't recall how many that conversation was so long ago. He lives a semi single life, his wife lives in Switzerland and although they see each other regularly it is not a marriage in any sense other than in name (or so he tells me). He has a girlfriend in his home land, and a holiday home in another European country. I shall call him Traveller because he does as much travelling for his work as Romeo does. I am in the habit now of always asking him 'where are you today?' Why am I telling you about him now when I have never mentioned him before. Traveller is from the country that Romeo seems to spend the majority of his time in, apparently Romeo has a member of his team who lives in the same Town that Traveller comes from.

Much to my surprise whilst we were chatting another window opened unexpectantly asking why I was still up (I think it was about 10.45pm). It seems that plans had changed and Romeo was not leaving on his next trip until today. So I got to spend an hour chatting to a National of X country who was over here whilst at the same time chatting to a Brit who was in X country. I thought that was so funny and told both of them so.

During our conversation Romeo and I were talking about hotels and I told him that I have a night booked in a country hotel in Norfolk in September. He asked about this so I told him briefly about my friend who moved to Norwich and met the love of her life, I am going to their wedding. He thinks it all sounds very magical. Ah see I knew he was a Romantic. By the way he can't wait to get home to see 'my little writer'.

I was going to do a post about my drive home today perhaps I shall do that later. I missed The Apprentice tonight as I was on here and forgot about it so I have to dash now to watch 'You are fired!!' so that I know what happened when I get to work tomorrow. I rashlypromised we would discuss tonights program tomorrow ............help!! gotta go bye

ps there is a new post on The Lady in Red Writes

bits and pieces

Following my last post just for those who like Fat Controller don't have the time to trawl my archives I ahve posted a couple of photos here.

Don't eat chicken sandwiches, no matter what.....

A little boy and a little girl attended the same school and became friends. Every day they would sit together to eat their lunch. They discovered that they both Brought chicken sandwiches every day! This went on all through the fourth and fifth Grades, until one day he noticed that her sandwich wasn't a chicken sandwich.

He said, 'Hey, how come you're not eating chicken, don't you like it anymore?' She said 'I love it but I have to stop eating it.' 'Why?' he asked. She pointed to her lap and said 'Cause I'm starting to grow little feathers down there!' 'Let me see' he said.'Okay' and she pulled up her skirt. He looked and said, 'That's right. You are! Better not eat any more chicken.'

He kept eating his chicken sandwiches until one day he brought peanut butter. He said To the little gir l, 'I have to stop eating chicken sandwiches, I'm starting to get feathers Down there too!' She asked if she could look, so he pulled down his pants for her!

She said 'Oh, my God, it's too late for you! You've already got the NECK and GIBBLETS!!!

After a slight hiccup on Sunday night things are even better than ever for me and Romeo now all that is missing is him here with me. But I know that the time for us to be together is getting ever closer. We talked until 1.30am this morning even though he was due to be on a plane by 7am. As much as I hated to do it especially as we won't be able to chat for a few days I had to say goodnight to him as I was getting too cold otherwise I think we would have talked until it was time for him to get ready for his flight. I would then have been dead on my feet at work today.

Oh I have some news on the work front. My colleague is leaving on 25th April. This will leave me on my own working full time with BG part time and the possibility of another part time person to join us. I think this shows that my boss has faith in me to be able to manage the greater portion of the work on my own. I have no worries about my ability to do the work, I just need to speed up a bit as I learn more of the products without having to look up each item. I am slowly getting to grips with the product codes and getting a better idea of which orders are sufficient value not to warrant a small order surcharge. It is a slower process learning the customer A/c numbers, and remembering who each customer is ie Mike, Alan or Phil (we have a customer base of around 5,000) some send in their orders by fax or through our Reps but others (the part of the job I enjoy most) give their orders over the phone. I enjoy the flirting that I am able to do as part of my customer relations. After many years of being used to talking to two men the customers are now getting used to speaking to me. It is amazing how many when they call ask me to put them through to Sales, but slowly they are beginning to ask for me.

challenge

Mulder has declared an interest in female body parts

I ahve set him the challenge of finding all the pictures of my breasts that appear on my blogs.

He tells me that he has found 3 pictures of my breast but he has been distracted by the many pictures of my legs.

My dear Mulder, there are very few pictures of my body parts on this blog, mostly these can be found on here or here although you might have to dig deep in the archives to find them lmao.

what is it all about?

for many years I have been one for dainty shoes like these

I even like to wear ones with thin heels like these

and for very special occasions I have these

I have no time for chunky shoes, I only like to wear dainty feminine footwear so why was it that this morning I was wearing a pair of these?

today we woke up to this

so it wasn't long before we had this handsome young man in our garden

yesterday I was walking around without a coat, today its a case of coat hat gloves and scarf not forgetting the boots, the whole kit and kaboodle. today I figure I need to make sure we have enough gas to keep us warm during this late cold snap. when I went to retreive my coat and gloves from my car there was about 2" of snow on the roof. The pictures don't really show how much snow we had. It must be the first time in a couple of years that we have had such a heavy snow fall that has lasted more than an hour!! I phoned my mum who has gone to visit her mother in law up in the cotswold countryside. I was only joking when I told her yesterday not to go getting snowed in. They are!! apparently when I spoke to them earlier they were looking at about 5 inches of snow.

I got myself all dressed up to go to the garage to top up my Gas card only I couldn't find my purse. I turned my bedroom and the living room upside down looking for it. Later it was discovered next to the keyboard of the computer in the livingroom. I had looked next to the monitor, under the desk on the shelves and not seen it. Doh, but ET had even been using the computer and not spotted it. Thankfully I ahve now got enough gas and electricity to last us this first week of the school holidays.

I had a lovely surprise last night just as I was thinking about going to bed Romeo came online hes back in Europe for 2 days before going to Africa. Hopefully then he can come home. While we were chatting he said that this all feels too good to be true. I know what he means so its up to us to make it real.

Birthday season

I am staring at 46 in under a week and as so many of my blogging friends are also Aries I thought I would wish all my friends a very happy birthday. It has amazed me how many of my blog friends were born under the star sign of Aries. So many strong women, I guess its true that like attracts like. some of these bloggers have already had their birthdays and others are just around the corner. but off the top of my head I can think of a fair few, all strong people in their own way.

Chopper who is just setting out on his battle to over come his recurring back problems he has a most warped and enduring sense of humour.

Evening has been battling breast cancer and come through the other side, but always has the time and energy to be supportive to her many friends worldwide.

Laney has been though a tough time in recent years, I have only begun to read her blog in recent months but it is evident that she is a very kind and supportive friend to all around her. What she did for Rhonda was amazing. I am sorry I didn't get to see the video she made for Evening's birthday.

Cake is an amazing writer, she too has been through heartache and I know from reading her blog this morning that this birthday will be a very emotional one for her. Cake I don't have word to offer you but lots of hugs. my only words are that I feel your pain I went through a similar thing 21 years ago and it was that one time that it was so painful after that it has been a case of not forgotten but the pain has subsided.

Pixie is an amazin woman with whom I ahve become close, I ahve nominated her my honarary sister which she was pleased to accept. Like cake, Pixie writes a lot that I can associate with but never think of writing until I see that she has put my thoughts in writing.

Trousers I am afraid that I only dip into his blog occasionally but he is a dear and has also been struggling with what life brings him. It was so lovely to see the positive energy coming from his recent posts. Oh I am sorry if I let the cat out the bag that its your birthday in a few days.

there are other bloggers who I could include like La fille who unfortunately closed her blog last year. If I have missed anyone please let me know and be sure that I wish you a great birthday too.

For those of my friends who have birthdays at other times of the year, you are all lovely but we can't all be blessed with the good fortune to be Aries. Oh and if you didn't know those of us who are Aries just remember that we are the babies of the zodiac so cannot be expected to grow up.

Defragmenting Rewards

VBF has given me an award

this is her reason - Because she is very inspirational and refreshing to read! xx

Thank you VBF that was very kind of you. I have never set out to be 'inspirational' I just tell it as it is. Sometimes life is hard, sometimes it is a little easier, sometimes it is great but the best way to get through anything is with a smile and a cheery word. I always try to see the lighter side of anything as I wasted too many years being miserable in my younger days. There are many people in blogland who are a far greater inspiration than I am. However it would be ungracious of me to ignore this accolade from VBF so I say a great big thank you dear girl.

Now VBF says we have to nominate 10 other bloggers for excellence. Umm now I believe that many of the bloggers I would nominate have already been nominated. so I am going to buck the trend and nominate all my readers both new and old (I refer to the time we have been aquainted not age). In my view all the blogs I read are excellent which goes without saying otherwise I wouldn't read them ....... oh there is one exception. There is a new blogger on the block who I have felt it nescessary to aquiant with the normal way blogging is done as he was becoming slack in his posting and commenting. Some of you may have noticed the reference nitebyrd made to mulder having a kicked arse.

Sorry Mulder you know I love you really ;-) but don't tell Romeo ok this our little secret.

Oh talking of Romeo I have told him that he will have to think of a way to make it up to me for missing my birthday........but I am not going to give him any suggestions as to how he can do this. I want to see just how romantic he can be if left to his own devices.

I had a phone call today to let me know that my skirt has been found, it was in the shop the whole time (among the suits naturally). Now when I was there yesterday I really wanted to tell the woman there how to find my skirt. Instead of checking methodically through every thing hanging up she was darting around looking here there and everywhere.........watching her progress was rather like watching a computer memory defragmenting.

One of those days

I woke up tired ............huh I went to bed at 9pm last night so why was I so tired this morning?

Today was going to be a big day for me.

Not a big day in that anything special was going to happen just several small things that I don't do any other time.

my plan was this:

leave work at lunch time (Boss has awarded me 2 x half days in return for working longer hours while Wayne was off sick for two weeks).

On the way home collect skirt that was being repaired.

Go home have cooked lunch for a change

spend an hour blogging out of normal hours whilst waiting for my groceries to arrive (this is the first time I ahve ordered my groceries online) I had booked a delivery slot between 2pm - 4pm.

5pm appointment for very expensive hair cut/colour.

So this is what actually happened.

I was late leaving work because I ended up getting caught answering the phone and getting delayed because then I ahd to investigate and write up the customer's complaint.

the dry cleaner's couldn't find my skirt

my groceries didn't turn up ...............I have a half prepared chicken casserole prepared, just waiting for vegetables
It turns out that I didn't click the final button to finalise the transaction so I ahve now booked it for friday evening.

As I left the house to go to hairdresser (by now I figured that I would end up with orange hair with my luck) I fell over and cut my knee twisted my ankle and grazed my hands whilst making a hole in my new tights. lucky my skirt is long enough to hide the hole.

well this is where my luck changed...........I got my hair coloured lots of brown weaved in using foils s that my roots will blend in better and I can let the colour grow out without it showing. I now have whispy white strands at the front which I quite like. So after 2 hours of having my hair treated and cut I emerged with a tidier version of the style I had walked in with but now nearer to my natural colour.

Following this I went to visist my mum to show her my early birthday present from her. She likes the new look and took a couple of pictures for me as well as giving me enough cash to cover all but what I would have paid for a normal cut.

Whilst I was with my mum I got a phone call from Romeo.......he won't be able to get back for my birthday as he is off on more travels. He was about to go to the airport as we were speaking. He will be in touch when he can but most of the places he works have their own internet systems which won't recognise his laptop. I can understand that as our system at home won't recognise DC's laptop.

I had a long chat with mum about various things then headed off to do some much needed grocery shopping and getting home to watch the second episode of this year's The Apprentice.

Overall it has been one of those days where everything goes wrong but I have been laughing my way through

Oh and he is crazy in love, he doesn't need me now, he can't eat, can't sleep and wants to shout it from the roof tops that he is in love............he is even reconsidering his thoughts on getting married again

Before you get all excited I am not referring to Romeo although he told me at the weekend that he can't believe how strong his feelings for me are. No the man who is in love is none other than my final fling that never happened and now won't................Sammy

Mouse tricks

Hmmm



Arriving at work this morning I was surprised to notice that the MD's car was already there. He usually arrives about 7.55am. As I walked into the office there was much hilarity going on at the far end of the office. My boss, posh bird and MD were all gathered at Posh Bird's desk laughing at something. I took no notice and got myself ready to work. Yesterday had been very quiet but today looked as though it was going to be busy, the fax machine was spewing reems of paper out. so I thought I would get stuck right in and get started.



Bloody mouse was on a go slow..........some days it does this. So there I am trying to get the damn thing to move a bit faster.



No it was playing dead mouse. So maybe it has got a bit clogged up. I know I shall clean it!!

good idea but how do you clean an infra red mouse?

Hmm this isn't going very well. But I do know that these things do need to have their batteries changed sometimes. So off I go down the office making a quip about having run out of battery.

Opening the stationery cupboard I ask PB if these (AAA) batteries are the right ones for the mouse.

'No..........you don't need them'



She is falling about laughing. Ok must be something she has just read on her screen..........

must be too early in the morning because I have not clocked that she is laughing about my mouse. Boss comes out of MD's office and takes me back to my desk and clicks on cotrol panel........ah the penny has dropped at last!!



There is nothing wrong with my mouse, it has been tampered with. Slowed down to minimum speed and changed to left click. At this moment Other Director (OD) has arrived and both he and MD are giggling like a pair of school boys. over the next 1 1/2 hrs the rest of the office staff arrive. Each having had their mouse tampered with. The receptionist of the building in which our office is situated has had her mouse tampered with too but she doesn't realise and phones an engineer to come and fix her computer. When she finally discovers who is responsible she is seen marching through our office and into the MD's room where I can see through his window she is doing a good show of throttling him she then does the same to OD.



Not long after this Belching girl (BG) who works part time with me (it was her maternity leave that I was covering in the first place). She is getting very frustrated with her mouse and is eventually told by Boss that if she looks in the stationery cupboard there is a can of mouse spray on the top shelf, she should use that to clean her mouse. It wasn't until she had gone muttering off to find this spray that she finally twigged and was cross with herself for falling for this last gag. They also got SG on the mouse spray too.



what were all these mouse tricks about?



It ws MD and OD showing off their school boy mentality. It was funny and I am really glad that I was one of the first to arrive, I would never had guessed it was the MD or OD who were responsible but their giggling in doorways watching the reactions of each person as they arrived was very amusing. Now I shall know in future that they are not above practical jokes on the staff.