Hey
So yesterday was Harrys first Water Babies swim lesson. We got there and parked up and headed in to the reception and were met by a Water Babies staff member who signed us in and showed us the changing area and poolside. It's in a pyhsio place so the pool is only small and about chest high.
You basically get changed at the poolside as there'sonly 3 small changing cubicles. I had my costume on already so just a case of getting harry ready and away we went.
There was only 6 in the class so it was a nice small group and the pool was nice and warm. Harry is the youngest in the group. He seemed to enjoy it until about half way through and then I think he got a little bit tired and started crying. I'm hoping this gets better with time and he'll get better in the water and also not get as tired and cranky.
All in all it went well, looking forward to going back to the next lesson (in 2 weeks because of the school holidays). From what I've seen so far I think we made a good choice getting him booked into these lessons.
Donna
x x
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
The Perfect Storm...
Hey
What on earth happened to the weather??
Iwent to visit my mum yesterday with Harry as she's off work ill, so we went to cheer her up and look after her for a little bit. Last night we look out of the window to see it was snowing!! I was a little worried that it would stick and I'd be stuck in Bradford, normally wouldn't be a problem but Harry had his first Water Babies swimming lesson today so I didn't want to miss it!
Anyway when we got up this morning it had pretty much all gone so I set off back. It was pretty bad rain coming home but then seemed to brighten up this afternoon..... the calm before the storm. David rang me at around 5pm to ask me to pick him up from work as he'd gone on the bike but the wind was really picking up. It's a pretty good job I did as the wind has now got really bad! The car was been blown around on the way home, the prom has been shut and now quite a lot of roads around Blackpool have also been shut due to flying debris, fallen trees and parts of roofs.
So we made it home, rescued our grey bin from halfway up the road, after we managed to get out of the car and keep the doors intact. We parked at the other side of the road (no houses on that side) as our car has a glass roof and we didn't want to risk any tiles coming off the house roof and smashing the car roof. Low and behold this seems to have been a very clever idea of ours. So far about 5 or 6 tiles have come off, and a few broken pieces are in the very spot our car would have been. David went out and rescued 3 complete intact tiles but the rest are shattered. We rang a roof man and left a message with him now, so hopefully we'll be in a good spot in the queue when the storm calms and people go and assess the damage to their houses. Ringing now should get us to the top of the list quicker than the ones ringing in the morning (or when the storm calms).
Here's to hoping the storm calms and doesn't cause too much damage to ours and everybody else houses! Here's also praying it doesn't cost a bomb....
Donna
x x
What on earth happened to the weather??
Iwent to visit my mum yesterday with Harry as she's off work ill, so we went to cheer her up and look after her for a little bit. Last night we look out of the window to see it was snowing!! I was a little worried that it would stick and I'd be stuck in Bradford, normally wouldn't be a problem but Harry had his first Water Babies swimming lesson today so I didn't want to miss it!
Anyway when we got up this morning it had pretty much all gone so I set off back. It was pretty bad rain coming home but then seemed to brighten up this afternoon..... the calm before the storm. David rang me at around 5pm to ask me to pick him up from work as he'd gone on the bike but the wind was really picking up. It's a pretty good job I did as the wind has now got really bad! The car was been blown around on the way home, the prom has been shut and now quite a lot of roads around Blackpool have also been shut due to flying debris, fallen trees and parts of roofs.
So we made it home, rescued our grey bin from halfway up the road, after we managed to get out of the car and keep the doors intact. We parked at the other side of the road (no houses on that side) as our car has a glass roof and we didn't want to risk any tiles coming off the house roof and smashing the car roof. Low and behold this seems to have been a very clever idea of ours. So far about 5 or 6 tiles have come off, and a few broken pieces are in the very spot our car would have been. David went out and rescued 3 complete intact tiles but the rest are shattered. We rang a roof man and left a message with him now, so hopefully we'll be in a good spot in the queue when the storm calms and people go and assess the damage to their houses. Ringing now should get us to the top of the list quicker than the ones ringing in the morning (or when the storm calms).
Here's to hoping the storm calms and doesn't cause too much damage to ours and everybody else houses! Here's also praying it doesn't cost a bomb....
Donna
x x
Friday, February 7, 2014
EBay listings and housework...
Hey
So today I've been listing lots of items on eBay from my sort out earlier in the week. My sort out hasn't finished yet, but I had quite a big pile of things to list so thought I'd make a start so that everything didn't end at once. I've made that mistake before thinking not everything would sell and ended up taking about 30 items to the post office, the women serving didn't seem very impressed with my bags full of stuff. She did grumble a little, so I think I'll find another post office to use in future. After all that is what the post office is there for and they don't give a limit!!
I think in future I may just take a trip to Lytham as the post office there is lovely, we used to take work post there and they never batted an eyelid even when we took a few sacks of things down. They were always really friendly too!!
Whilst doing my eBay listings I've been pottering down doing the housework. Washing soon mounts up when you have a baby. I don't think it ever really crossed my mind how many clothes changes we would need. Luckily the clothes are small so a lot fits in each wash load. However, our clothes aren't so small and also mount up when Harry decides to spit up or make a mess.
The housework has come second to Harry, as it obviously should, since he arrived so now things have settled and he is a bit happier on his playmat/bouncer rather than being cuddled up with mummy all the time I'm able to get back on top of things. Oh joy, I get a bit of free time and it's taken up by catching up with house work...
Donna
x x
So today I've been listing lots of items on eBay from my sort out earlier in the week. My sort out hasn't finished yet, but I had quite a big pile of things to list so thought I'd make a start so that everything didn't end at once. I've made that mistake before thinking not everything would sell and ended up taking about 30 items to the post office, the women serving didn't seem very impressed with my bags full of stuff. She did grumble a little, so I think I'll find another post office to use in future. After all that is what the post office is there for and they don't give a limit!!
I think in future I may just take a trip to Lytham as the post office there is lovely, we used to take work post there and they never batted an eyelid even when we took a few sacks of things down. They were always really friendly too!!
Whilst doing my eBay listings I've been pottering down doing the housework. Washing soon mounts up when you have a baby. I don't think it ever really crossed my mind how many clothes changes we would need. Luckily the clothes are small so a lot fits in each wash load. However, our clothes aren't so small and also mount up when Harry decides to spit up or make a mess.
The housework has come second to Harry, as it obviously should, since he arrived so now things have settled and he is a bit happier on his playmat/bouncer rather than being cuddled up with mummy all the time I'm able to get back on top of things. Oh joy, I get a bit of free time and it's taken up by catching up with house work...
Donna
x x
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Weigh In Day
Hey
Well today is weigh in day, actually for both me and Harry this week.
I went to Slimming World and am pleased to say I lost a lb! I stayed the same last week, when I actually thought that I would have gained so that was good. So I've lost 5lb so far. A long way to go but it's going in the right direction so I'm happy.
Then off to the clinic to get Harry weighed. He went last week an had only put on 2oz in just over 3 weeks, which meant he had dropped a line on his little chart. Due to this they asked me to come back this week to get him checked again. He's put on 8oz this week so he is doing better. Not quite back on the line he was following but he's gaining and the health visitors are happy with that. They want him to go back in 2 weeks just to keep a check that he's still gaining well. He's now at 9lbs 6oz, from his birth weight at 6lbs 7oz. He's getting quite big now, (well to me anyway) and growing up so fast. I wake up most mornings to big gummy smiles, he certainly recognises me and gives big smiles when I talk to him. I can't quite believe how much he's changed in these past 10 weeks. I also can't believe he's 10 weeks old tomorrow!! Don't know where that time has gone, it's flown by...
Donna
x x
Well today is weigh in day, actually for both me and Harry this week.
I went to Slimming World and am pleased to say I lost a lb! I stayed the same last week, when I actually thought that I would have gained so that was good. So I've lost 5lb so far. A long way to go but it's going in the right direction so I'm happy.
Then off to the clinic to get Harry weighed. He went last week an had only put on 2oz in just over 3 weeks, which meant he had dropped a line on his little chart. Due to this they asked me to come back this week to get him checked again. He's put on 8oz this week so he is doing better. Not quite back on the line he was following but he's gaining and the health visitors are happy with that. They want him to go back in 2 weeks just to keep a check that he's still gaining well. He's now at 9lbs 6oz, from his birth weight at 6lbs 7oz. He's getting quite big now, (well to me anyway) and growing up so fast. I wake up most mornings to big gummy smiles, he certainly recognises me and gives big smiles when I talk to him. I can't quite believe how much he's changed in these past 10 weeks. I also can't believe he's 10 weeks old tomorrow!! Don't know where that time has gone, it's flown by...
Donna
x x
Organising Craft Stuff
Hey
It's been a few days since my last post as I've been mega busy this week. I don't seem to have stopped at all!!
I wrote a list of things I needed to get done this week on Sunday evening and got cracking with them on Monday. So far I'm probably about half way through the list. Getting jobs done with a baby isn't that easy! Luckily Harry seems to be quite content this week and has been happy laid batting around at things on his playmat or in his bouncy chair so I've been able to get things done around him. He seems happy as long as he can still see you and I chat away to him telling him what I'm doing which keeps him settled as he knows I'm still there.
On Monday I tried to do all the jobs I needed to do out of the house, so I nipped out to the shops, post office etc. This took most of the day, everything is so much slower when you have to take a baby in and out of the car, strap him into prams/trolley seats etc.
Tuesday I made a start on my main task of the week, sorting out the spare room. Since we had to clear out the second bedroom ready for Harry, everything else was dumped around the house and into the spare room. So it's getting a little bit of a nightmare in there. It needs to be sorted, organised and de-cluttered. I made quite a dent in there and sorted a large pile of things to be listed on ebay, mostly the things I sorted through were my crafty bits. I can't believe just how much crafting stuff I have. I used to have a nice desk and bookcase in the other room with all my stuff on and it really didn't seem that much, but packed into boxes it really is! I've decided that we really don't have room for me to have a proper desk/area to craft in so I really needed to be a bit ruthless when going through my things. I need to go for quality rather than quantity to save some space.
I managed to get rid of 2 bag fulls of things that I was essentially just hoarding, the things I kept becuase someday I might be able to use that scrap of ribbon somewhere kind of thing. A lot of the new/unopened things I've decided to sell on as I've not used them in so long. I've got one big plastic box of things that I really want to keep so far. The bad side is I have about 3 more of the same size boxes that need sorting through!!
Yesterday was spent doing general housework and we went out to meet David for his lunch break at work. We caught his bus there, went to Tesco cafe for lunch and then his bus back home again. So Harry got to ride on daddys bus.
Today, me and Harry will be getting on with other stuff from the long list, it's slowly getting shorter but not nearly quick enough for my liking!
Donna
x x
It's been a few days since my last post as I've been mega busy this week. I don't seem to have stopped at all!!
I wrote a list of things I needed to get done this week on Sunday evening and got cracking with them on Monday. So far I'm probably about half way through the list. Getting jobs done with a baby isn't that easy! Luckily Harry seems to be quite content this week and has been happy laid batting around at things on his playmat or in his bouncy chair so I've been able to get things done around him. He seems happy as long as he can still see you and I chat away to him telling him what I'm doing which keeps him settled as he knows I'm still there.
On Monday I tried to do all the jobs I needed to do out of the house, so I nipped out to the shops, post office etc. This took most of the day, everything is so much slower when you have to take a baby in and out of the car, strap him into prams/trolley seats etc.
Tuesday I made a start on my main task of the week, sorting out the spare room. Since we had to clear out the second bedroom ready for Harry, everything else was dumped around the house and into the spare room. So it's getting a little bit of a nightmare in there. It needs to be sorted, organised and de-cluttered. I made quite a dent in there and sorted a large pile of things to be listed on ebay, mostly the things I sorted through were my crafty bits. I can't believe just how much crafting stuff I have. I used to have a nice desk and bookcase in the other room with all my stuff on and it really didn't seem that much, but packed into boxes it really is! I've decided that we really don't have room for me to have a proper desk/area to craft in so I really needed to be a bit ruthless when going through my things. I need to go for quality rather than quantity to save some space.
I managed to get rid of 2 bag fulls of things that I was essentially just hoarding, the things I kept becuase someday I might be able to use that scrap of ribbon somewhere kind of thing. A lot of the new/unopened things I've decided to sell on as I've not used them in so long. I've got one big plastic box of things that I really want to keep so far. The bad side is I have about 3 more of the same size boxes that need sorting through!!
Yesterday was spent doing general housework and we went out to meet David for his lunch break at work. We caught his bus there, went to Tesco cafe for lunch and then his bus back home again. So Harry got to ride on daddys bus.
Today, me and Harry will be getting on with other stuff from the long list, it's slowly getting shorter but not nearly quick enough for my liking!
Donna
x x
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Fly Tipping and Council Rants...
Hey
So today I'm on a bit of a rant. It's been in the local papers over the last couple of weeks about fly tipping around the area. We had alley gates fitted to our back alleys a couple of years ago as the council decided this would help reduce fly tipping and people hanging about. We were then informed that if we wanted a key to have access to our own back alley then we would have the privilage of paying £8 for one.
At the time we had a moped and this was stored in our back yard, so it meant that we had to purchase a key otherwise we couldn't get in and out with the moped. At the time we were very annoyed at having to this as fair enough it's £8, but why should we have to pay to have access to our own property. This is our house, we bought it and we oay our council tax, surely each house should have been given one key? But no this isn't the case, many people on the street didn't bother to buy a key and we've been asked numerous times by neighbours if they could borrow our key to let people round the back to load/unload deliveries or do work etc. We've actually stopped lending out our key now as I don't see why we should pay for a key and then hand it out for everybody else to get the benefits and not have to pay. Also as we live in terrace houses, our rubbish bins can't be stored on the path and have to be kept in our back yards, which means if you don't buy a key and the gates are shut you have to pull the bins through your house. Not a good plan.
Anyway, fast forward a couple of years and the alley gates clearly haven't worked as there is always bags of rubbish and dumped items in the alleys. This was even mentioned by one of the councillors in the paper, but they are proposing more gates be put up. Go figure.
I had to ring the council just after Christmas as the alley gate lock was broken and would only unlock from the inside, so if your on the outside you had to put your hand through and unlock with the key from the inside. While I was reporting this I also reported the 30/40 black bags of rubbish that had been dumped at each end of the alley and also the array of items thrown in the back alley. They said they would fix the lock and get the rubbish removed, to be fair they did, but it's filling up again.
My other rant is about the actual bins. The council decided to give us all bins a few years ago, grey for general waste, blue lid for recycling and a bag for cardboard. The bag blew away long ago and after reporting 2/3 missing and getting replacements I gave in. Our grey bin has been stolen once, which was replaced. Over Christmas before I started using cloth nappies pretty much full time I realised that my grey bin was full after a week (collection is every fornight) mainly with nappies, so I thought I'd contact the council to get an additional bin.
When looking into this I found that having a newborn in nappies I might be entitled to an additional grey bin, however I would have to fill in an application form first. If my apllication was approved I'd then need to be assessed by a person who comes round. Then if they approved it I could have an additional bin, after I paid a £30 fee!! I also found that now if our bin is lost or stolen I would have to pay a £15 admin charge for a new one. So somebody steals my bin and I am expceted to pay? No wonder people fly tip. Isn't this why I pay my council tax? To have a bin collection and waste disposed of. Surely bins are being stolen left right and centre by other people who have had there bin lost or stolen because they can't/don'at want to pay the fee for a new one.
A friend of mine recently bought a brand new house, only just built therefore had no bins. They also had to pay £30 to get a bin, they hadn't even ever had a bloody bin. Surely if everybody was issued with a bin when the whole scheme was introduced for free, then new builds should be issued with a free bin when they are built!!!
Rant over... for now
Donna
x x
So today I'm on a bit of a rant. It's been in the local papers over the last couple of weeks about fly tipping around the area. We had alley gates fitted to our back alleys a couple of years ago as the council decided this would help reduce fly tipping and people hanging about. We were then informed that if we wanted a key to have access to our own back alley then we would have the privilage of paying £8 for one.
At the time we had a moped and this was stored in our back yard, so it meant that we had to purchase a key otherwise we couldn't get in and out with the moped. At the time we were very annoyed at having to this as fair enough it's £8, but why should we have to pay to have access to our own property. This is our house, we bought it and we oay our council tax, surely each house should have been given one key? But no this isn't the case, many people on the street didn't bother to buy a key and we've been asked numerous times by neighbours if they could borrow our key to let people round the back to load/unload deliveries or do work etc. We've actually stopped lending out our key now as I don't see why we should pay for a key and then hand it out for everybody else to get the benefits and not have to pay. Also as we live in terrace houses, our rubbish bins can't be stored on the path and have to be kept in our back yards, which means if you don't buy a key and the gates are shut you have to pull the bins through your house. Not a good plan.
Anyway, fast forward a couple of years and the alley gates clearly haven't worked as there is always bags of rubbish and dumped items in the alleys. This was even mentioned by one of the councillors in the paper, but they are proposing more gates be put up. Go figure.
I had to ring the council just after Christmas as the alley gate lock was broken and would only unlock from the inside, so if your on the outside you had to put your hand through and unlock with the key from the inside. While I was reporting this I also reported the 30/40 black bags of rubbish that had been dumped at each end of the alley and also the array of items thrown in the back alley. They said they would fix the lock and get the rubbish removed, to be fair they did, but it's filling up again.
My other rant is about the actual bins. The council decided to give us all bins a few years ago, grey for general waste, blue lid for recycling and a bag for cardboard. The bag blew away long ago and after reporting 2/3 missing and getting replacements I gave in. Our grey bin has been stolen once, which was replaced. Over Christmas before I started using cloth nappies pretty much full time I realised that my grey bin was full after a week (collection is every fornight) mainly with nappies, so I thought I'd contact the council to get an additional bin.
When looking into this I found that having a newborn in nappies I might be entitled to an additional grey bin, however I would have to fill in an application form first. If my apllication was approved I'd then need to be assessed by a person who comes round. Then if they approved it I could have an additional bin, after I paid a £30 fee!! I also found that now if our bin is lost or stolen I would have to pay a £15 admin charge for a new one. So somebody steals my bin and I am expceted to pay? No wonder people fly tip. Isn't this why I pay my council tax? To have a bin collection and waste disposed of. Surely bins are being stolen left right and centre by other people who have had there bin lost or stolen because they can't/don'at want to pay the fee for a new one.
A friend of mine recently bought a brand new house, only just built therefore had no bins. They also had to pay £30 to get a bin, they hadn't even ever had a bloody bin. Surely if everybody was issued with a bin when the whole scheme was introduced for free, then new builds should be issued with a free bin when they are built!!!
Rant over... for now
Donna
x x
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