Go-ing, Go-ing, Go-Go-Gone!

The salvage man came to collect the Go-Go on Monday. He arrived driving a huge 6 car transporter which Nipper would have loved but sadly he was at nursery and missed it.

I asked whether they recycle the car parts or sell them on etc and he went into a lengthy explanation about it all. I thought the Go-Go might live on if only in some very small way but it soon became clear that she just isn't worth the trouble and she's off to the crusher. I was so sad to see her go.

And here is her replacement:

Affectionately known as 'Nissy' she is another Nissan Micra, has done roughly the same mileage but is half the age of the Go-Go. I love the colour (a terribly girlie thing to say, I know!) and she has shiney new hubcaps. She also has a new MOT and a full Nissan service history - just so you know I didn't get her just for her looks! I think I'm going to love her as much as I loved the Go-Go.

Go-ing, Go-ing, Go-Go-Gone!

Spring Has Sprung

Well, spring has definitely sprung in my garden. It's so nice to see something doing well, other than the weeds which are flourishing! Mind you, if I planted more nice things I'd get to see a few more flowers wouldn't I?! We have made some progress with our front garden, including a minor disaster, but I'll put that in another post.

This seems to have been a very long week! I am trying to get the house back to some sort of order following decorating our living room. I'm not sure the photo's really show the before and after very well. Here's the floor before:

And after - shame to cover the parquet but Nipper has slipped and banged his head so many times:

Nipper was having fun 'helping' me to hoover the new carpet, which is a lovely cream colour. He has his own toy Dyson (thank you Ebay). And you can see the state of my back garden too!

Another couple of 'before' shots - the walls were a very minty-green.

We have a stone fireplace and hearth with a teeny-tiny woodburner. Now that the room has been done up I'll get a nice rug to cover the hearth and hopefully avoid nasty bangs on the head.

Here's an almost finished shot - the walls are now Dulux Orchid White:

You realise how much stuff you have when you need to clear a room out (we were having a carpet laid so the room had to be emptied), and we have far too much stuff despite my freecycling and frequent deposits at the charity shop. We are still trying to finish it off with a nice curtain pole but the drill bit has gone blunt and we're having problems getting a replacement (our drill has hexagonal bits which push in and click and we're struggling to find someone who sells them).

Then of course there was the pranging of the Go-Go. I can't believe how much hassle it is to sort out and how many different people you have to deal with - insurance company, courtesy car company, salvage company, engineer, underwriter, dvla. The underwriters want copies of every piece of paperwork we've ever had for the car so I've spent a lot of time rummaging around looking for it all, photocopying, and form filling. I really must do an overhaul on my household filing system!

I've also had some hassle from the other driver's insurance company. The cheeky so-and-so's organised a salvage inspection of my car without asking/telling me about it. They are desperate to sort the matter out themselves as I guess it'll work out cheaper for them. When I found out about the inspection I rang them to complain and told them my insurers were dealing with everything. They accused me of being obstructive and said I was witholding information and failing in my legal responsibilities. At first I was a bit alarmed but then I twigged that they were trying to scare me into allowing them to deal with the claim. So then I got a bit annoyed and gave them a piece of my mind!

We also had some sad news this week. Mr Earplugs was working in Belgium and his Mum rang me to say that his Grandad had died. It wasn't altogether unexpected as he had suffered a stroke recently and was rather poorly, but still a bit of a shock. I wasn't sure about this but I decided not to tell Mr Earplugs about it until he got home. He couldn't do anything and he didn't need to come home straight away - the funeral's not for a couple of weeks. I didn't think there was any benefit in him finding out when he was at work and miles away. It turned out to be the right decision.

Rather than sitting here blogging I should be clearing out my kitchen. We decided to replace our kitchen which is about 25 years old and hideous (grey stripey doors, grey trim, grey mottled worktop - yuck). We got a very good deal in the January sales and I know someone who can fit it for a quarter of what the store wanted to charge (and my chap's no cowboy, I've been using him for electrical and plumbing work for years). The work starts on Monday and I need to empty everything out. It's the same scenario as the decorating - far too much stuff and nowhere to shove it all! Here is a peek from the catalogue, though we aren't having any curved units and my kitchen's nowhere near as big:

It'll apparently take a couple of weeks. After that I've got a plasterer coming to do the hallway followed by a decorator to sort out the hall, stairs, and landing. Pretty much the whole of our house was trashed when we had building work 3 years ago. Here are a few pics to give you an idea:

We've been redecorating ever since but I'm hoping to get most of the house finished before the baby arrives, hence getting a decorator for a final push. It'll be so nice to be able to relax and enjoy the house without constantly seeing a list of jobs which still need to be done!

Spring Has Sprung

RIP Gorgeous Go-Go!

Well, here I am again writing another 'RIP' post. This time it's for my lovely little car - the Go-Go - so called because of her number plate.


She may not look gorgeous to the untrained eye but I love her. We got her off Mr Earplug's grannie a couple of years ago. She was nearly 18 years old then and had only done 38,000 miles. She's never any trouble, costs very little to run, and usually sails through her MOT.

Unfortunately she now has to go to the great carpark in the sky as a stupid truck driver backed into her and crumped the back end. She is still driveable but our mechanic said that the safety of the rear end has been somewhat compromised and so it wouldn't be a good idea driving around with the kids in the back. So, she's a write off and I'm not best pleased. I now have to fork out unnecessarily for another car, the insurance payout will be rubbish because she's so old, I've got the hassle of finding another car, and in the meantime I'm driving a hire car which I hate - it was supposed to be a small car but it feels enormous to me! Ho hum!

However, I had a lovely surprise on the same day which really helped to brighten me up. I ordered this fab piece of fabric from Sara:


And look what else she sent - lots of lovely extras:



I was thrilled to bits! The brown fabric goes perfectly with our pair of 1970's cordurouy swivel chairs so I feel a cushion making session coming on. Thank you Sara for your generosity - you made my day!

Quick request for help - my anti-virus software (Kaspersky) has suddenly decided that certain blogs pose a phishing risk and is denying me access to them! I've read the help pages and they're not much help so I've had to disable the anti-phishing component, which isn't ideal. If anyone has any ideas on how to sort this out they would be gratefully received!

RIP Gorgeous Go-Go!

RIP Sophie Guinea-Pig

I was going to 'introduce' our guinea-pigs since I introduced the cat a while back, but one of them has only gone and died on me! I must have put a hex on it or something. One minute it was fine and a couple of hours later it was lights out time! I know they don't live very long but I think this one was only about 4 years old.

We got 2 sisters for Miss Muffett's 8th birthday. As is usually the way with these things the shine rapidly wore off and there was always a lot of moaning when they had to be cleaned out. But I managed to resist the job being dumped on me as I told Miss Muffett she had to live up to her responsibilities (how harsh is that for an 8 year old - lol!) Initially theye were going to be called Rosie and Sophie but I realised that these are the names of Sally Webster's girls in Corrie and that would have been rather sad. So instead Rosie was renamed Scooter as she scooted off when we tried to pick her up.

They were quite a pair with Sophie being the dominant greedy and grumpy one - she's the one in front in the photo below. Poor Scooter never got a look in. They had a large indoor cage for the winter (they can get bad chests if left outside in UK winter weather conditions) which we used to keep in the family bathroom. During the summer they had a rabbit hutch with a large run so they could run around and scoff the grass.

Miss Muffett was terribly upset, especially seeing Sophie lying lifeless in the cage, but this prompted a discussion on how small animals usually live shorter lives than bigger animals, which is no bad thing really. I nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to get her out of the cage. Stupid really, but I had to cover her up so I couldn't see her before I could manage it. Mr Earplug's very dutifully dug a hole in the garden border (I was tempted to put her in the wheelie bin but everyone looked at me with horror when I suggested it!). And so she was buried - hopefully deep enough so I won't be digging her up when I add plants to the border.

Scooter seems quite happy on her own, no doubt enjoying the fact that her greedy and grumpy cell mate is no more. And Miss Muffett was soon over it saying at least the grumpy one went first!

RIP Sophie Guinea-Pig

Mid-term Musings

I've now passed the mid-point of my pregnancy and reached the point where new nipper is classed as 'viable'. Because of my age, and what happened with the last pregnancy, I've found it a bit hard to relax into this one. I was just starting to get there when my Consultant reminded me that this birth had better be a c-section. Yikes! Guess I'll be needing lots of these then:

This has now made me freak a bit (the c-section rather than the pants - lol!). I don't know why as I was told that this would likely be the case after I had Nipper. Still, there's quite a difference in a hpothetical c-section for a possible next birth and having one fixed and put in your diary (12th June)!

I don't have any issues regarding c-section versus natural birth. In my view you have the birth necessary to keep both you and your baby healthy. I think I'm stressing because it's a major operation, which scares me to death, and I'm unsure how much help I'll get afterwards (judging by my experience of 2 previous births and my friend's recent c-section it won't be much!) And Mr Earplugs may well have problems in spending as much time as we'd like at the hospital because he'll need to look after Nipper.

I've been 'musing' a bit on how different this pregnancy has been when compared to my previous pregnancies.

I read something along the lines of: 'In your 20's you can be pregnant, hold down a full-time job, and have a social life. In your 30's you can be pregnant and have either a full-time job or a social life. In your 40's being pregnant is more than enough!' I'd have to agree. I'm going to bed before 9pm each night but I'm still absolutely knackered. Having an active toddler who doesn't like to sleep probably isn't helping there.

The morning sickness was worse and lasted longer than with previous pregnancies.

I've had every germ going - the flu which morphed into gastric flu; the nasty chest infection which landed me in hospital; 4 instances of digestive 'upsets' (the type where you need both the loo and the sink at the same time - say no more!); I now have another throat and chest virus, and there's been an outbreak of chickenpox at our toddler group so I have to avoid the place until I've had a bloodtest to see whether I'm immune!

Name a pregnancy 'irritation' and I've got it already - really bad leg cramps keeping me up at night, needing the loo all the time, terrible heartburn (I should buy shares in the company that makes Rennies), other 'digestive' issues, pelvic joint pain, nose bleeds, dropsy, braxton hicks already, and backache! I'm not 'blooming' yet either!

One thing has remained the same though - a strange desire to eat freshly cracked black peppercorns. Even when they are burning my mouth I can't seem to stop myself. Very odd!

And I've become rather large rather quickly:

I've got another 15 weeks to go so goodness knows how big I'll be by then! I rather like the blurry photo. I couldn't use the flash in the mirror and there wasn't really enough light in my hallway. I also realised how grotty the mirror was so I've been at it with the Windowlene and it's all sparkley now!

*Pants photo from the book 'How to have a baby and still live in the real world' by Jane Symons.

Mid-term Musings