Goooooooood Friday Morning Blog land!! Come on Wake up!!!

Ok, so the little black number wasn't wasted even though I was unable to do my award speech due to connection problems, you know what these international events are like, satellite breakdowns etc

A HUGE! thankyou to all those that voted for my story blogs, I am amazed that so many people actually knew they existed! Of course this does mean that I have to get the grey matter going and continue the adventures of Keelagh and Wraith, it isn't that I ran out of story it is just finding the time to sit and let it work its way out (No rude jokes here if you please) Rest assured she will be continuing her epic journey soon.

And of course HUGE congrats to all those that won last night, well done and big hugs to you all, Commiserations to the runners up, but, it is all in fun and as it is a yearly event you get another chance to win something next year, so get blogging!!

It was lovely to see so many new names this year, it goes to prove that this event is blog wide and hopefully will silence the critics who surface every year to knock it, you the bloggers make this event and without you there would not be one, so blog on

Right I am at my sons right now as my tinternet is still down, the phone is back up and running and it appears to be a Sky problem (now there's a surprise!) it will hopefully be up and running soon and I will be back to torment,bore, grace you with my presence once again, meanwhile I will leave you with my acceptance speech.

Blog.co.uk Bloggers Rock!!!!

Yes I know the votes have not yet been counted and the winners announced and I am something like two hours or so ahead of time, but!!!

My phone is gliched and that means no internet, BT are trying to trace the problem but apparently their systems are down, which means who knows when I will be back on, though they have promised it will be as fast as is possible.

So sadly I will not be here when the winners are announced, I am at the moment on my daughter-in-laws comp and I will check in the morning by the same means so will hopefully give you all personal congrats then.

Have fun, be good, I will still wear the little black number and open the wine You will just have to use your imagination (Thats none of you geting any sleep tonight for the nightmares )

And Huge Congrats to you all!!!

Good Morning

So I have done it, after weeks, no months of humming and ahing about it I have finally taken the plunge filled in a CV and applied for a new job! (Deep breath) Tis more money, and more hours but only five more hours a week, which I work unpaid right now, so it isn't that bad.

Anyway, not being allowed to go back until tomorrow and being totally disenchanted with the place I work, not to mention the axe that is hanging over our heads if the business doesn't turn around soon, I finally bit the bullet and set to and properly looked for an alternative. And do you know I actually feel better for having done something at last

Now all I need is to actually get the job and things will be on the up

So how is your monday going?

There s nothing like standing in the middle of a field with the wind in your hair, watching the dawn push back the night. The gradual lighting of the sky and the melding of colours as the light meets the dark.

As long as you are wrapped up warm that is as it is a bit chilly out there at six in the morning.

My son and I had the strangest conversation this morning concerning glasses that are half full and that they dont really exist because they are just metaphors, at five in the morning this is slightly mind boggling to those not used to our way of conversing, it was actually slightly mind boggling to me and I am

He says the strangest things when you first wake him up, though he never remembers them when fully awake, it is quite amusing the stuff he comes out with, something to do with Humbugs yesterday

Tis Sunday and as such is the last day of the weekend before work tomorrow, now hasn't that cheered you up?

Have a good one

What can I say about my absence, well small absence, from the morning post. I am just coming through what the Docman describes as a 'Flu type virus' To be honest it felt like the real thing to me, hot and cold sweats, burning up but shivering, and my throat feels like I have swallowed a golf ball! There are worse things going on in this world I know, but when you are ill and alone, it doesn't feel that way

Anyway, I am hopefully through the worst now, done the fever and stuff, and though I am weak and wishy washy, I am definately feeling much better, I can even sit at the computer for more than five minutes ( you dont want to know how long it took me to do the post for the Bloscars blog!) So normal service will be resumed, after I have had a little nap

The headlights struggle to slice their way through the freezing fog , so the cars can be heard, though slightly muffled and cannot be seen until they are but a few feet away. The landscape that you thought you knew so well has become alien and ghostly wrapped in swirling eddies of white and grey. The trees become sentinels that jump out at you as you approach them and you walk carefully as you are sure you know where you are going but you are just as sure you might fall down some vast hole left just for that purpose. It is eerily quiet as you strain to see what is in front and to the sides, and then suddenly something wet and cold touches your hand and you utter a noise that becomes more of a squeak than a scream as you quickly try to suppress it realising it is only Molly and not some unearthly creature! Sometimes taking Molly for a walk can be more of an adventure than is good for me!

Freezing fog since last night, and yesterday was cold enough to freeze brass monkeys, it even gave us a little flutter of the white stuff, for no more than five minutes and very tiny flakes, but hey it tried.

Right thats about all I have time for as the day rushes on and I have to do stuff, I think?

Have a good day whatever you are doing

Standing beneath a canopy of stars looking out at the lights covering the valley, feeling like you are the only person that is awake, alert. Nothing else moving, except the dog of course who comes and sticks her nose in your hand as if to say "Can we go now I am freezing" and brings you back to earth.

Tis Monday, the day of beginnings, or endings, depending on how things work out, neverthteless, tis the first day of the Working week and we will soon be trooping off to those places of employment to earn our daily bread.

Just thought I would drop by before I go to wish you a Good Morning.

The past two days have been lovely, haven't they? It almost has that feel of spring about it, the air that is. The morning starts off cold and a bit foggy and by ten the sun is shining, by lunchtime it has burned away the freezing fog and the day feels springlike, a little warm and bright, I even come out of work in daylight!

We strange humans, the difference that it can make actually walking to work and back in daylight instead of being stuck in perpetual night, is amazing. It actually makes you feel quite good and able to look forward even if it is only to the weekend

It is Valentines day, though this day means little to me I know that many will be looking forward to their partners/boyfriends/girlfriends showing them that little demonstration of affection, just remember that you dont need a special day to show that you care, but it is nice to have one I guess. I hope you all get what you wish for and have a perfect day.

Right off to get ready for the big bad world outside and I shall catch you all later

This one is for Nick

This for everyone else

Sorry the posts have been a bit thin on the ground this week, have an assignment due in at midnight tonight, should be back to normal after that, well as normal as my posts are

Lunchtime already! Hasnt this morning gone quick? Thats what you get for being super busy I guess.

Just thought I would pop in and say Hi while having my quick lunch (Cold Quiche)

Hope the day is going well for you all, the sun has managed to get up enough warmth to burn away the freezing fog that had descended by the time I went to work, and the day though not warm is at least bright and cheerful.

Right got to go again catch you later

Sometimes all you need is to stand on a hill and gaze out over the valley, the lights of houses shining and the street lamps ever lit to mark the way home. Then raising your eyes to the deep black of the sky above you filled with stars that seem to stand out more when the air is so cold.

This morning was different as the dawn was just beginning to break, marked by the birds singing and the sky beginning to lighten on the horizon, the ground so cold that you could see my footsteps in the frosty grass, marking my passage, but gone when the sun finally gets up.

And it is Monday, the beginning of another round of work and study, have fun, and a good day where ever you are whatever you are doing.

As I walk along this windy path what can I see? Anything I wish really as the path is of my own making and so shall the scenery be.

Perhaps I shall have meadows, long and golden with buttercups, a scattering of trees for shade when it is warm, shelter when it rains. Perhaps it will be early morning and the rising sun will reflect off the early morning dew making the meadow sparkle and shine.

Maybe my meadow will run along the banks of a river, and the early morning mist will be rising above the water making it look ethreal and giving rise to thoughts of mysterious creatures dancing in the meadow or along the banks of the river.

Maybe my windy path will be through woods or a forest, and the early morning will see the little animals scurrying about their business at the start of the day, the birds singing their chorus of delight at surviving yet another night to greet the rising sun. The deer grazing before man comes along to disturb them, the fox hurrying home to its little ones its night of foraging over, maybe it has breakfast between its jaws.

I can take my windy path anywhere I want, place it in any scene I desire, and enjoy the pleasure of the early morning walk without even leaving my chair.

Friday, and what can one say about the day so far? Not a lot really, but in just over four and a half hours I will be able to walk through the door and know I dont have to be back for two whole days!! I knew there was a reason I liked fridays

Anyway, as you can see I am once again late with the morning post, this is due to that thing that I have no control over called time, for some reason it seems to run away with me lately? I tell you I have more white rabbits than our Old Nick's story

And I see that it is at it again as I now have to get my coat on and go back to work *sigh* never mind only another Four and a half hours to go.

Catch you later

OK I know I am late, but it is only twelve hours!!

It has been a long day, but then so was yesterday and the day before. Anyway, aside from that it has been a lovely day, the sun has been shining and though it was cold when the wind blew it was luckily not all the time.

I have finally managed to open a bank account which is a big weight off my mind as it now means I can have my money paid in to my own and not my sons.

And thats it for now, as I am about to have some tea

I am not perfect, I have many flaws and foibles, just as I suspect everyone else does, isn't this what makes us Human?

Humans are not meant to be perfect, if we were we would not be Humans we would be Angels, and despite my profile pic I am far from being one of those!

And yet we all strive to be as perfect as we can, yet what makes us the people that others like and want to be around are those very imperfections that we strive to be rid of.

That doesn't mean that you cannot or should not try to better yourself if that is what you desire, after all this is what makes us grow and develop, just as long as we remember that we are meant to have weaknesses, we are meant to have flaws, that is what makes us all unique, like snowflakes, each one just that little different to the next, each one with it's own individual pattern.

Be you, be who you want to be, and leave perfection to the Angels.

Right got to go, time to hit the road and enter the world of the living, well, sort of living

Have a great day

It never rains but it pours (Well this is England!) first day back at work to be met with all the news, and not very good news at that (or is it?) Apparently while I was away last week and 'emergency' company announcement was called.

What happened at this meeting was both shocking and expected, the shocking part was the original founder of the company, the one that brought in the whiz kid and made him a partner remember? Apparently losing his cool and standing shouting and swearing at the staff and blaming them for the fact that the comapny only has enough money left to last another 12 weeks. Erm try blaming the fact that Mr whiz kid has some brilliant ideas but is not a people person and due to him you lost half your staff before Christmas and the rest have been trickling away since. Without good staff you cannot keep existing customers happy and have no chance of bringing in new custom.

And that brings us to the 'expected' part, right from the get go I have said that while Mr Wizkid has some fantastic business ideas would it not make sense to look after what you have that is bringing in the money and introduce the new stuff gradually? Apparently not, with a grand launch before Christmas and long before all the faults and gliches were anywhere near ironed out enough they went ahead and mowed down any oppositional talk by basically saying do it my way or the door is over there. Exit even more staff!

Forgotten is the fact that some of us, mainly the ones still there, have kept that company going through the waves and high tides over the past two years amidst promises of raises that have never materialised, working long hours without being paid overtime just so the client would stay. We have talked clients out of cancelling and made sure that refunds were kept to a minimum by talking to clients and promising them the service they should always have had, and I am not going to be the one to have to tell them in twelve weeks whoops sorry we no longer exist you are on your own!

The one thing that all this has done for me is make me stop humming and ahhing over whether or not I am going to go for a new job, after all what is the point in waiting, he says 12 weeks, I give him less time than that before he locks the gates and sells his client database to another company. I cant even say it was good while it lasted, I just feel sorry for the clients that I look after as no other company has a critical illness department or a death department that helps the client through the worst times in their lives.

Ah well job centre here I come

So how was your Tuesday?

Just a short good morning this morning as my computer is throwing a wobbly for some reason, it has days like this , the sound has gone and all I am getting is a kind of static noise, when I shut her down she will probably come back on as good as gold.

Also it isn't comfortable sitting at the desk at the moment with my back hurting from the fall, though it isn't as bad as it was yesterday, the bruising is out thanks to the bath I took last night.

Right am off to get ready for work, hope everyone has a great day,wherever you are whatever you and the weather is doing (tis raining here)

My return to work will be delayed by a day, thanks to a nice little tumble I took whilst out for my morning walk with Miss Molly. Whilst I have managed this time not to break anything (I think) I am bruised and a bit shook up. I am a muddlehead and yes I should have watched where I was placing my feet

The snow here lasted half a day then it was gone and then we got rain, which we have still got. Course we also have freezing nights and that makes for nice little icy patches, though it was mud I slipped on coming from off the grass on to the sidewalk, luckily at that time in the morning there was no one around so it wasn't nearly as embarrasing as it could have been.

Anyway happy Monday to all and I hope you have a great day, I will be bac later to torment you all.

Respond to this, ask for a year to write about, and write a post about what you were doing in that year.

I was given my year by Landersuk, 2001.

This was a strange year to have been given, but, it started off as a good and bad one for me. Just After the start of the year I had to give up the place that I was living in and move in with my Brother, it was a temporary arrangement and was due to the fact that I was finally going to realise my dream of owning my own home.

I was in the throes of the main paying outs and it was more feasible to move in with our lad and try to save a bit of money, I had been helping him out anyway as he was out of work, this way I could help us both out.

Unfortunately while my two dogs were happy enough with his animals, the main reason being the cats and dogs he had came from my home to start with, one of my cats Ziggy, was not, this was when he started his wandering and decided he was no longer part of my family, though he did come to me if he had any injuries even after I had moved in to my new home. I could never get him to settle back with us, but cats will do their own thing.

In April I moved in to my own home, my house, finally, I had been there less than a month when my eldest and her kids moved in for three weeks, in all that time she never paid me a penny and I kept all three of them. She then moved in to her new home, council house that I had been helping her to sort out, the place she had been living in was an absolute dive with water coming through the ceiling and it was damp and disgusting.

After she moved out the middle daughter moved in, she was having problems with the area she lived in, she didnt pay board just paid half for food and was supposed to pay half towards the bills, course that didnt happen. For some reason they seemed to think because it was my own house I didnt have to pay out as much per month

She stayed a couple of months and then moved out and things began to settle down, I was quite happy in my little house with my pets, even though it needed lots of work doing.

Before she had moved out I had an accident at work and ended up with a trapped nerve in my back, that landed me on the sick for six months, luckily I was covered because it was a work accident and though I didnt get full pay, I managed to keep the mortgage paid, unfortunately I had to give up the job at the end of the six months as they refused to insure me as I was now classed as having a bad back. They couldn't sack me, but I also couldn't work unless I took out a private insurance that I could not afford.

I was reemployed before I was unemployed but it was with a huge drop in pay, though it was also a drop in hours. Thats when the struggles really started with the payments, but I was managing just.

In the June my son had his first child, though the first twenty four hours were touch and go, he came through and he is a lovely six year old (nearly seven) now. Sadly my son also contracted Testecular cancer at the same time. It was found early and he had only cancerous cells, he was advised to have a vasectomy as it would cut down the chances of reoccurance, so he did. He was just twenty when he had the op.

I spent half the year sorting out his marital problems, the eldest's marital problems and the middle one's paranoia. As well as adjusting to a new job, new work colleagues and trying to keep the roof over my head that I had worked so hard for.

Towards the end of the year after having split up twice and got back together my son and his family moved in to my house, it was hell, the arguments between those two went on until the early hours of the morning. They calmed down around Christmas time and we had a pretty peaceful Christmas apart from the baby (my grandson) having to be rushed to hospital on christmas day with a severe asthma attack.

I had taken a loan out to help them through those few months and through Christmas, one of the worst things I ever did, but we live and learn. And it did get them out of trouble and gave them the means to make a good christmas for the children, I guess even knowing what would happen the following year I would probably still have done it, we do dont we, for our children?

Anyway that was 2001, nothing really exciting, well not for others, I guess.

I got up this morning to a carpet of white upon the floor outside, just a thin one, and it is not snowing at this moment, I have watched the news and seen the devastation wreaked upon other parts of the country, seems we just got the tail end, again. Dont get me wrong I dont mind at all the fact that we are not three foot deep in snow, but I would rather have none than this thin film that will freeze and make it practically impossible to walk on!

In other news, haven't got any

Miss Molly ran out in to the yard, hit the snow and ran straight back in to the house and sat in front of the fire, shivering and giving me that look as if I had done it on purpose

She is refusing to budge now and has curled up on the settee, mumbling and grumbling, she is worse than a child

Right I have to go out in the horrible weather and see if I can open another bank account after the fiasco I have had with Barclays, wish me luck.

The snow has arrived, well what others keep telling me is snow,it is blizzarding away but it is not settling as the ground is too wet and it is just the small stuff.

My daughter-in-law says what do you mean it's not proper snow? I mean it isn't huge flakes that can be seen without having to move the curtain and look and that cover the ground wet or not! Is it really that long since we saw real snow?

Actually it is here, the nineties was the last real snowstorm we had that stopped everything and covered the land for weeks not hours, we have had the odd storm that has covered for a few days but they have been few and far between. kids got sent home from school and were off for two days as the council struggled to clear the roads. And yes I know storms like that are a pain, but that is what winter in England used to be all about, now you are lucky if you get a slight blizzard like we have now.

Still at least we dont get snowed in anymore and people dont die through it so I guess there is some good to be had from the lack of snow, though America have had it real bad over the past couple of months with snow even falling in Texas! I guess that is something that they haven't seen in a long time.

Right thats the weather forecast over, now what was I doing? Ah I remember

The 1st of February, wow, I managed to survive January! of course it doesn't mean anything to most people, just that Valentines day is nearer and that Easter is nearer and Mothers Day and so on ad infinitum.

Have you noticed how these things are so close together now? Like you have just got over Christmas and your February pay packet is the first one you might actually see some of and you are whammed with Mothers Day and then Easter, I am surprised they haven't pinched the pagan celebrations to spin money out of yet, but there is time good people, there is time.

The rain still pours and the wind though it has dropped from the fifty mile an hour gusts we had yesterday and all night, is still quite strong. I have cheated this morning and have phoned the Daughter-in-law instead of going down, I really dont want to go out there and get soaked again, if I was working it would be different as I go that way anyway, that sounds mean doesn't it, but I didn't just not do anything, had she not answered the phone I would have gone down.

And on to other news, it is Friday!!!!! Which normally means a whole weekend off work but today means I only have the weekend before I have to go back, unless I win the lotterey on Saturday

Have a great day, and stay dry and warm, See ya