My nice new hallway

Ok, so it's been a long time coming but the carpet finally went down last week to complete the new look hall, stairs and landing. Unfortunately I don't have a 'before' shot; I thought I had but then it was too late when I realised. Quick description though: heavily patterned Victorian style carpet with floral wallpaper above a white dado rail and white painted paper below the dado, with white painted skirting board and an unpainted front door. Gosh, it looks so much cleaner and modern now - I hope it stays that way but with four cats to keep in check, it'll be a struggle!

Spurs 3 Wigan 1

Despite neither John or I not feeling the best (I'd had a sore throat, cough and cold all week, andJohn had an achy head & body), we couldn't waste our £40 tickets by not going to the match today.

It took longer getting through Southend than the rest of the way to the ground, which seems to be the norm on Sundays these days - Lord knows where everyone is going. We met up with Debs, Mick and their mate Craig for a short while before the game but with the showery weather, all of us decided to get into the stadium a little earlier than usual.

I thought the atmosphere seemed weird today - I dunno whether my ears were blocked but everywhere including the roads outside the ground seemed quiet. ???

It was more like a Sunday afternoon kick about at the park in the first half, with little enthusiasm shown and as I had predicted before the game, Spurs went one down. Served them right really - everyone was just standing around ball watching and doing nothing to block the shot being made. Out of the blue though, and just two minutes before the break, Defoe ran onto Berbatov's pass down the left, he cut in skillfully and scored. 1-1. Less than a minute later, Assou-Ekotto released Berbatov down the left flank, who managed to nutmeg Jackson and curled the ball into the top corner with his right foot. Amazingly it was 2-1! Football is definitely a funny game. What a turnaround!



In the second half, Spurs had a fair few good chances. Wigan had theirs too but never really looked as if they were going to trouble us. John placed a bet before the game for a 2-1 Spurs win and whilst it was stuck on that scoreline, everytime they had the ball, John was muttering under his breath: 'don't score, don't score'. It was looking like he'd be claiming his £40 winnings until (would you believe?) 30 seconds from the final whistle when Aaron Lennon scored our third from 10 yards. He was a bit gutted to say the least. Me - I don't care, I'm just pleased that my team earned the three points. This puts us back at tenth in the table. Next week - away to the Arse.

An interesting list!

Poached from my mate Al who poached this from someone in Toronto apparently! Highlighted are the things I've done so far in my life...

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain (if you can count Ayres Rock?)
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid - nope but stood next to it though!
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise (this was on the River Nile)
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse (1991 Grand National)
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse (sort of - didn't have appropriate specs so kinda looked at it out of corner of
eye)
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud (I was about 2 yrs old)
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice - the only thing I didn't do in Venice!
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in newspaper/magazine
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach (yuck! I brushed it off me whilst I was sleeping)
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

My poor little Jonny-Cat

My cat J.C. was booked into the vets yesterday to have some dental treatment. He's always had a history of poor teeth and has had to have five teeth extracted previously. This time he had four removed including one of his incisors. I'll have to rename him Gummy-Cat!!

Anyway, I had expected to collect him the same day but because he had so many out, they wanted to ensure he was getting sufficient pain relief by keeping him overnight. I called them this morning and they were keen to keep him another night as he hadn't yet eaten anything and they wanted to administer more pain killers. I wasn't too pleased at this because Jonny is not the kind of cat who missed his din-dins; see pic - he is a lovely round-shaped ginger tom and his place is usually in front of his bowl. I spoke to the vet again in the afternoon and pursuaded her that if he came home, he would be more likely to eat. She said they would need to give him another injection at 5pm, so I could fetch him after I finished work.

It was so great to see my boy again - I hadn't relaised how much I'd missed him. As soon as he got back to familiar territory, he was looking around for food. I gave him some tinned tuna which was nice and soft, and he managed to eat some. He was more eager when I presented slices of ham and he scoffed that straight from my hand. So it goes to show how stressed he must have been at the vets.

He needs to go back for a check up and more pain killers tomorrow. The bill so far is £229. Phew! But at least my baby is ok and he's been spoilt rotten with attention and cuddles from his Mummy!

Nan on the move

The day finally arrived for my Nan's move to Mill View. She was swapping accommodation with a couple so it was quite difficult to organise with people coming and going but it all went well in the end. There was 5 of us helping: me, my Mum & Dad and my Auntie Annette & Uncle Brian. Nan's bungalow was pretty small but the new flat was much tinier, however, I think it has a nice cosy feel and it instantly felt homely once Nan's stuff was in it. Of course, she had to get rid of a fair bit of furniture coz there just wasn't anywhere to put it, and it's amazing the crap you accumulate over the years. It's a lovely complex actually with a large walled garden just outside her back door & opposite the corridor by her front entrance is a small courtyard. Nan hadn't slept at all the night before with the worry and she was pretty tired out by the evening. However, once she settles in, I think she'll be much better off there as she won't have to walk so far and only has to use the intercom or emergency cord if she needs anyone.

There'll be a party in Southend tonight!

A massive woohoo to our local boys for beating Manchester United 1-0 in the Carling Cup! No-one likes to see that do they? :-) Despite Southend being bottom of the Championship and the opponents top of the Premiership, you wouldn't have known watching the game. A stonking 30 yard free kick from goalscoring hero Freddy Eastwood in the first half sealed the victory and Man Uited were denied an equaliser time after time by the superb goalkeeper Darryl Flahavan. They move into the quarter final for the first time in their history. Not bad eh?

I'm going gig mad!

It's not like I've come into some extra cash or anything but I'm being very frivulous with my money at the moment. In fact, I'm gonna have to sell some shares to see me through Christmas, to pay for the redecorating we're doing in the hall, footie tickets, get my cat's teeth seen to, as well as the concert tickets I've already bought and the one I really want to buy...

And so for the details:

Kylie - 2nd January 2007 at Wembley Arena. This is the opening night of her comeback tour and tickets from the box office are all sold out. I made the seller on eBay an offer of £140 for 2 tickets which was accepted. Slightly outrageous I know, but it's bound to be well worth it. John said he'll go with me if I get the tickets - I thought he'd be more enthused as he likes Kylie, but he said he's just not really a concert type of person. So if anyone out there wants a night out with me and they can come up with £70, you could be in luck!

Lionel Richie - 23rd March 2007 at Wembley Arena. I managed a bargain on eBay getting two tickets for £95, less than the face value of £55 each. And the seats are not bad either. John isn't keen on going so I intended to ask my Mum but Hayley at work expressed a real enthusiasm to go, so I asked her whether she wanted to buy the other ticket. She's gonna think about it.

It's just been announced that 'my man' Daniel Bedingfield is doing a one-off gig at Shepherd's Bush on 25th November with just 200 tickets available. That's just under three weeks away. Many of the girls on the forum are already going and staying in the same hotel. I so wanna be a part of it...the great thing is that John and I are already in London that day for Spurs v Wigan so I could go straight there after the game - the problem is what to do with John! I emailed my friend Debs who I meet at the footie as she is a fan of Daniel too and I asked if she fancies going to the gig with me. That way, the two guys can do something else and then we can meet up afterwards and all go back to our house together. It's a cunning plan; I just hope she'll say YES!

Free at last

Following on from my post of 3rd July, I was overwhelmed when I heard the great news that the three lions caged in a French circus for seven years, were now free.

Djunka, Nalla and Shala are at the Born Free Foundation Jean Byrd Animal Rescue and education Centre at Shamwari, South Africa. They have gone to a sanctuary where they will share a large natural bush enclosure of several acres and be able to enjoy life under the African sun, something which is a far cry from their tiny beast wagon. Although they will never be able to go back to the wild as they would not be able to fend for themselves, they will receive the highest levels of care from the dedicated team at the Born Free Foundation for the rest of their lives.

I was glad to see GMTV announced the good news this morning - I was in floods of happy tears over my cereal watching them being released; they are such wonderfully proud creatures and they are, at last, where they belong.

My dear little RJ

I'm posting this a little late (4 days in fact) but I'm just catching up with myself! I can't possibly not mention my nephew's 1st birthday which was on 2nd November. Ronnie James is my brother's youngest and is such a cute good natured little boy. Here's a current pic of him. He didn't know what the heck was going on of course, but he received loads of nice prezzies, most of which I ended up playing with!

He's had a bit of a rough time, bless him - he was born with two of his

fingers joined together and it wasn't until a few months ago that he was operated on. They had to obviously cut the skin between the fingers and take a graft from the bottom of his foot to replace the skin that was then missing. Check out the size of the bandage on his hand in the other pic! Apparently it was even bigger than that at one stage! Doctors were also worried about his eye - there is a very slight turn in the left one and they were talking about the possibility of an op on that too but that has now gone by the by. It may well correct itself in time and I don't believe you should put a toddler through such a procedure, especially when it's not majorly concerning.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Runs round the room like a maniac! It's been 16 years but my boys finally managed to beat Chelsea today 2-1. I'm ecstatic, I only wish I'd been there.

I wouldn't normally blog about a match I didn't go and see, but this one is special and I'd booked my seat in front of the telly.

Although the visitors took the lead after a pretty decent Makelele goal, Spurs came back into it and equalised after a glancing backward
header from Michael Dawson, quite unbelievably his first for the club. Chelsea had a goal disallowed but I'm not sure why; I'm not complaining though!

There were plenty of chances for both sides and it was even for the most part. However, in the second half, Spurs upped their game and looked the better side. On 52 minutes, Aaron Lennon took the ball down, wrong footed Ashley Cole in the box and slotted it home. Quite contraversially, John Terry got sent off with a second yellow card but despite many replays, I still don't know what it was for. Again, I'm not complaining - it's about time we had some luck.
Chelsea came close to making it 2-2 with Robben hitting the post but we managed to hold on for one of the most memorable victories in recent years.



You could say it's been a good week, with a 3-1 win against Bruges on Thursday. At last, we're on the up! And....another reason to remember the 5th of November.

Remember remember the 5th of November

Well it's after 10pm and the fireworks are still
banging outside. I suppose they'll go on and on
for weeks as usual - it's a pain especially when you have pets and I really think some sort of law should be put in place to restrict the amount of fireworks used by the public. Round our way, they go off all year and it's particularly irritating when people set them off after 11 at night.

Whilst on the subject I thought I'd re-educate myself on how the tradition came about..............

In 1605, thirteen young men planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Among them was
Guy Fawkes, Britain's most notorious traitor.
After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had been persecuted under her rule had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. James I had, after all, had a Catholic mother. Unfortunately, James did not turn out to be more tolerant than Elizabeth and a number of young men, 13 to be exact, decided that violent action was the answer. A small group took shape, under the leadership of Robert Catesby. Catesby felt that violent action was warranted. Indeed, the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. Today these conspirators would be known as extremists, or terrorists.

To carry out their plan, the conspirators got hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder and stored them in a cellar, just under the House of Lords. But as the group worked on the plot, it became clear that innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack, including some people who even fought for more rights for Catholics. Some of the plotters started having second thoughts. One of the group members even sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th. The warning letter reached the King, and the King's forces made plans to stop the conspirators. Guy Fawkes, who was in the cellar of the parliament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th, was caught, tortured and executed. It's unclear if the conspirators would ever have been able to pull off their plan to blow up the Parliament even if they had not been betrayed. Some have suggested that the gunpowder itself was so old as to be useless. Since Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators got caught before trying to ignite the powder, we'll never know for certain.

Even for the period which was notoriously unstable, the Gunpowder Plot struck a very profound chord for the people of England. In fact, even today, the reigning monarch only enters the Parliament once a year, on what is called "the State Opening of Parliament". Prior to the Opening, and according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. Nowadays, the Queen and Parliament still observe this tradition.

On the very night that the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, on November 5th, 1605, bonfires were set alight to celebrate the safety of the King. Since then, November 5th has become known as Bonfire Night. The event is commemorated every year with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire. Some of the English have been known to wonder, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, whether they are celebrating Fawkes' execution or honoring his attempt to do away with the government.

Hope you enjoyed that history lesson!! At least it's an ENGLISH tradition, not an American one like Hallowe'en which strangely appears to get more popular each year. I remember one year when I was a young, making a brilliant guy with the other kids in the street I used to hang around with, and doing 'penny for the guy' on the corner of our road. We collected over £100 which was ridiculous really, considering the limited amount of people who passed by. Although I don't agree with children begging for money these days, we did at least spend the money on fireworks and had a display at our neighbour's house (Anne & Geoff's), where we congregated every year. They were fun nights - freezing cold but fun!

What is up with the public?!

Have they no taste? I'm talking about the X Factor...ok it's a bit trivial - no-one has died, but how are the McDonald brothers still in the competition? They didn't do any justice to my fave Abba song Fernando -it may well have been titled McFernando! Amazingly, Ashley was in the bottom two tonight, together with Robert who has also been there before. I think Robert is slightly too cocky at times but you can't deny he is a fab performer. Ashley on the other hand has one of the most unique voices I have ever heard, he has a beautiful face and a fantastic head of hair! I was gutted Louis decided to send him home, but hopefully it won't be the last time we see him - he has too much talent. And, YES I DID VOTE! They should switch it around so you can vote for the act you want to get rid of, else, someone will have to cut the phone lines in Scotland next Saturday!!!! From the remaining seven, I think Ben has the most talent with Leona a close second.