What I have been doing 10th -23rd July 2017

It has been a busy week with some unexpected early morning excitement thrown in. Monday was Quilting club where I continued on with my hexagon flowers for my bed quilt. I managed to complete a whole flower again. I had intended on starting one of the advent calendar panels for my nephews but did not really fancy lugging my sewing machine to the club plus I was cannot get there for the start of the club so there are generally no plug sockets for me anyway. I could do them at home I suppose, but they will have to be finished in 2 months as my Mum is going over to Australia to visit my sister, brother in law and nephews.

On Tuesday it was the monthly WI meeting which was a week late due to the hall having a long standing booking on the evening of our monthly meeting. We had 2 cute visitors called Percy and Beryl who kindly brought  along their owner from Manchester Dogs Home to give us a talk about what they do and of course the dreadful fire in 2014.

Wednesday morning started rather early and unexpectedly when we were awoken by the sound of an engine running. Normally I don’t hear things like that but the engine was revved a little when it was started. Craig got up to look out of the window expecting to see a taxi but instead saw two men loading a motorbike onto the back of a van. Craig shot downstairs and opened the front door and shouted out. The two men ran off leaving the van and the bike. Craig took the keys out of the van, and tried to see where they had gone. Another neighbour across the road had also heard the noise and had come out. Whilst Craig was inside calling the police and putting a top and shoes on, I stood at the door talking to the neighbour. Would you believe it, but one of the thieves came back hoping to take the van, but as soon as he saw us he ran off again. The police arrived after 20 minutes and took details and did what they had to do. By the time they had finished it was nearly 5.00am and it wasn’t worth going to back to bed.

Matthew said he had heard the noise but didn’t come out of his room as he was too comfy in bed. He also complained of feeling dizzy and sick. I felt really guilty sending him into school but when he has said this before he has been fine. This is the downside of being a working mum-the guilt when your child says they don’t feel well but you have very little choice but to send them into school anyway. I had a bad feeling when Matthew phoned me as he got to school as he was a bit weepy saying that he still felt ill. I told him to get a drink and see how he feels. Anyway to cut it short, 20 minutes after school started I got a phone call from the school saying he had been sick and could I come and get him. Luckily, my boss is pretty understanding and because my job could be done pretty much anywhere when I am not required to train someone, I worked from home for the rest of the day.

Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful with just normal routine things.

Saturday was another early start (4.30am) as we were going to be driving 4 hours down to Cardiff  to go to the Doctor Who Experience before it closed in September. It has been a few years since I last went and it was certainly a lot busier. I will write a whole blog post on the day. If oyu do get the chance then go to visit before it closes. We also had a walk around Cardiff Bay which was being turned into a beach for the summer and also down to the Barrage where we watched the boats going up and down in the lock. Before we left we ate at Eddie's Diner which was where they filmed the Diner scene in the episode where River kills the Doctor. We were lucky enough as well to sit in the booth that they all sat in as well.

Sunday was just a lazy day as we got back about 11.00pm the night before and I needed to catch up with some housework and especially the ironing.

Next week is going to be all about Matthew as it is his last week in primary school and there are loads of things going on.

Diary for Week 10th-16th July 2017

This week hasn’t been too bad and quite enjoyable for me as there were fun things to do. Monday was the Craft club at the WI I go to. I will admit that there are times the project the group is doing does not appeal to me so I always take a little project of my own that I can work on. This session though was felt brooch making so I thought I would join in. I had an idea of the design but then when I saw an earring that could be used for the centrepiece I completely changed my mind on the whole design. The brooch was simple to make as it just involved cutting out the felt, sewing the brooch fastener on the back piece then because the black piece had a sticky back I just peeled the backing off and stuck it down. The next piece and the centre piece were then glued. The little sheep brooch I did cheat with as it was already made up so all I had to do was sew the brooch fastener on.

We got Matthews SATs results on Tuesday and he passed them all so as a reward we went to Krispy Kreme and then to see Despicable Me 3 at the cinema. I love the Minions and because of that I enjoyed the film.

Wednesday was another trip to the cinema (a bit further away from home). This time it was to see ‘Spiderman-Homecoming’. I definitely thought it was the best Spiderman film I have seen and what made it even more enjoyable was the fact that the cinema screen had recently been refurbished and all the seats were recliners with little movable trays for you to put your snacks on. I will definitely be going to that cinema again especially if all the screens are going to be refurbished.

On Thursday I had to catch up with the ironing and make chocolate brownies for the Wimbledon lunch we were having on Friday at work. Unfortunately I didn’t get round to making the brownies until 9.30pm as Craig had asked the local councillor to visit to see the trees that we would like to be cut back as they are getting too big and we have had a few branches fall and break the shed roof. She is going to see what can be done and is going to push to get the whole area cleared and turfed as it is a little bit further down the street. That would be brilliant and look so much better.

The Wimbledon lunch did not take place as planned as I was the only person who brought anything in so it was business as usual. Friday evening I was feeling pretty tired so we just watched  The Fast and Furious which I wasn’t overly interested in.

My plans for Saturday did not come off completely as I wanted to do a Zone clean in the back and front rooms but as usual Craig had other ideas so they did not get done. I did manage to order the food shopping to be picked up on Sunday however so that I didn’t have to worry about not having time to get that done.

On Sunday we took Emma to get her own DSLR camera which she is paying for out of the money that she has saved. We ended up with a really good deal even though it ended up costing us more than we anticipated. Craig has this habit of wanting to get everything all at once when it comes to gadgets so she has 3 lenses, 2 camera filters and the accessories bundle that you get for ½ price if you purchase it with the camera.

Craig and I then had a canal cruise along the Bridgewater Canal  and Manchester Ship Canal from Castlefield to Salford Quays. It was a very pleasant meal but I have to admit if I was to do a canal cruise again I would go somewhere more scenic as we saw mainly graffiti and brick walls.

So all in all a pretty enjoyable week with lots of fun things but I do need to spend the rest of the month catching up with housework and doing some zone cleaning so that I can stay calm and happy.

I have a Youtube Channel!

I enjoy learning how to do new things all the time. One thing I have been wanting to do for a while was to learn how to video edit. Craig has done some in the past for family and Emma is studying Media at College so has also done it. In the past anything computer related I have generally left to Craig but this time I decided I wanted to do this myself. 

I obviously needed something to put in the video and one of the things I enjoy watching most on Youtube is the Day in the Life vlogs. So I decided to take the plunge and as I was off work last week with Matthew I thought I would record what I did.

I was surprised at how much footage I filmed even though most of the individual clips were quite short. When it came to doing the editing I ended up referring to Youtube to find out how to use the software as we do not have any manuals-not that they make much sense to me anyway. I know that it is still a little rough around the edges but I did everything I wanted to put in it. 

Why not check it out.

(I know there are two videos on there but Craig did the Zoo video and I hadn't really set up the channel properly.)

I hope to be able to do more videos soon as sometimes it is easier to show on film what I want to say rather than write it down.

See you soon.

Deborah