What a week! Ubers, Italians and lock-ins!!

Well, it's been a brilliant week!! After my pamper day last Friday, followed by cocktails at the Slug and Lettuce and Hakamou, the weekend was gorgeous so got some gardening done. It was just nice to be able to get outside in the sunshine! Then I just had to survive 2 days at work before my birthday 🤣

I have to say, I was truly spoilt! Breakfast was served, the house was tidied and cleaned, I was made to relax and put my feet up....... There were some concerns raised about my reputation due to the number of bottles of wine I was given by friends at work, but I can't see any problem with that myself! 😂😂😂🍾🍾🍷🍷🍷🍷

I now have a new kindle (paperwhite) which is all loaded up but I haven't had time to use it yet! The kids, typically, had taken ownership of my old one within seconds. The look on their faces when Jay suggested he might be having the old one was one of shock, disbelief, and "You?!" 😂. I had so many lovely cards and presents I feel truly blessed to have such wonderful and loving family and friends.  Mum had also 'helped' Faye and Billy make me a birthday cake, which they had done really well!

Yesterday was spent relaxing and playing with the kids whilst Jay was at work. Mum and dad then picked the kids up for me and Jay to have a night out.

I organised this night out during the day. We had thought about going to the cinema, but didn't really fancy anything that's showing, so thought just a nice e meal would be good.

Then I had a brainwave!

We could try an escape room!

I knew there was one in Leicester almost opposite Terracotta so I had it all planned in my head - escape room followed by a Chinese buffet! Perfect! 👌

I got started on Google and in no time I had booked us onto the Bank Job room at Escape Reality for 8pm. I clicked on the directions / map just to double check how far away from Terracotta it was before booking our meal, that's when it hit me.

Now how was I supposed J Fri yet to know there was more than one escape room venue in Leicester?! I mean, they're a fairly new concept aren't they?? Apparently not. In fact there appear to be at least 3 venues in Leicester!
the in the in e tree
Not only had I not booked the correct venue, the one I had booked was on the opposite side of the town!! Nowhere near Terracotta, or any other restaurants that we knew of! After working out how long it would take (me) to walk from the new venue to anywhere we knew to eat, I found out that everywhere would have stopped saving and it quickly became clear that we were going to starve .......

Enter brainwave no. 2 🤔

Ring the venue to see if we could go later, then we could eat first. God I'm clever 😂 in fact, scrap that. If I was clever I wouldn't have booked the wrong place in the first place and everything would have been going to plan!!

The man at Escape Reality was really friendly and moved us to the later slot. Phase 1 of Operation Recover-the-situation complete! 😊

Now just to find somewhere not too far away to eat........ Jay did a bit of street map googling and found an Italian nearby.  We checked out the menu online and a phonecall later dinner was sorted! Woohoo!! 🤣

We decided to try Uber for the first time and after my panic that I hadn't actually booked it at all, there it was outside the house! Things were definitely looking up!

We arrived at Altro Mondo, the staff couldn't have been lovelier, the food was gorgeous and there was live singer who blended perfectly. Although I was highly embarrassed when my birthday was announced, Happy birthday sung, and a big square of tiramisu with a candle was brought out, thankfully it was early so not too busy and the tiramisu was beautiful and melted in the mouth! Now I just hoped the escape room was good! We were so full I was glad we had found somewhere nearby as I don't think I would have made it far!

We made it to Escape Reality and again the man was very friendly, helpful, explained everything, although, put on the spot, the best team name we could come up with was TJs44! We were given the background story to the room we had chosen (Bank Job), gave us our first clue of where to start, then locked us in with 60 minutes on the clock to get the diamond out of the safe....... We were so pleased with ourselves when we solved the first clue and the next door opened!! We thought we'd solved the next clue but got stuck in the next room so went back in ourselves to have another go. After a while the man came in to tell us we had already solved that part, otherwise the last door wouldn't have opened. Oh yeah, doh!! He gave us a bit of help to find the next clue we were struggling with then left us to it. We solved the next bit and found the secret door to the vault. There was a cipher to deactivate the vault and although we were OK with the code we ran out of time and it turned out we were using the wrong word with the code. I have never known an hour go so quickly!!! We both loved it, it was really well set out and organised, we just wanted to go back in and have another go!! We will definitely be going back! (we might even let the kids come!).  Within 5 minutes of leaving we were in our second uber cab of the night on our way home.  It was a fantastic night!!

The week was ended perfectly with a visit from the big kids, who took us all out for lunch at the Horse and Hounds, which was also really good service and food.

All in all, a brilliant week!!

Skinny tanned again!

The lovely people @SkinnyTanHQ sent me some goodies including their primer and new express mousse1 hour tan.

I have to admit, I was slightly nervous about this one! It is recommended to leave it on for 1 hour for a light tan, 2-3 hours for a medium tan, or overnight for a deep tan......

The primer was really good a d I also used the exfoliating mitt for good measure! Then it was tanning time 🤣

As I have mentioned before, I am white. Milk bottle white. Now the tan and tone oil gives me quite a deep tan (a month in the Bahamas type of tan - at a guess as I've never actually been to the Bahamas, or anywhere for a month for thay matter! )  So, the mousse was applied and it was easy to get it even as it is tinted so you can see where you've been 😀

Then the waiting started and the nerves kicked in. How long should I leave it on for?? 1 hour may not look that tanned on me but 3 hours may go really dark 😕 and overnight wasn't even in the thought process!!  In the end I decided on the mid-point, 2 hours.

I jumped in the shower and watched my legs turn.... cream. Not white but the colour I would go with a natural light tan and, as is also usual for me, the rest of me did look slightly more tanned than my legs! As the sun was shining and the garden was beckoning, I quickly put some skinny tan oil on my arms and legs and with a couple of hours I had a nice healthy glow!  Whether there was any reaction between the mousse and oil, or whether the self-tan in the mousse was still working I don't know,  but after using the oil this time I think my tan is darker than it was the first time I used it.

I did like the mousse and, now I know how it reacts with me, I won't be so nervous about how long to Ieave it on next time.  Even overnight has now entered the realms of possibility!

Pamper Heaven!

The sky is blue, the sun is shining and I'm looking at it, not from my desk at work, but through the window of the hairdressers!

What a lovely day it's been! It started well with the postman bringing me a box of goods from Skinny Tan (which I can't wait to try. In the daylight. With minimal help to reduce the risk of another Oompa Loompa moment!), dropped everyone at school and did a bit of shopping before going for my first pamper session of the day!

Jay bought me vouchers for a facial and massage at the Beauty Boutique for Christmas and I finally got round to booking in. What can I say?! It was lovely!! It was sooooo relaxing! I was asked what my current skin regime was and I desperately tried to make something up that sounded impressive, or at least plausible, but I failed miserably and ended up mumbling 'make up wipes'. In fairness, if she was appalled, she did a good job of not showing it, then again she'd probably figured I have no 'regime' the minute she saw me! Nevertheless my face was treated to a 'proper' regime of cleansing, toning, exfoliating (which in reality I would never have time to do!) a shoulder, face and head massage and a face mask....... This was followed by an arm and hand massage whilst the mask dried. It was bliss!!

When I finally dragged myself out (I could happily have stayed there all day), Jay came along and had to stop for me to cross the road - perfect timing! We picked up Billy and I dropped them off at Muddy Boots and had a quick tour of the allotment before grabbing a quick shower (at home, not the allotment!) and it was off to church for Faye's school service!  They all did really well and it finished in time for me to get to the hairdressers for pamper session 2, ready for my night out with work 😊

Bring on the weekend! 🍷🍹🍷🍸

Oompa Loompas, Surgeons, and Music!!

What a busy few days!!

(Another) night out from work to celebrate a colleague passing her Masters. It was a good night and I also bumped into two customers from my barmaid days so it was nice to catch up. Quite an early night too as I was home by 9.15 to a silent house as everyone was asleep. Well they were asleep until I realised I hadn't taken my keys with me....... Ooops! 😕

Saturday disappeared in a flurry of chores and ended with me deciding to top up the tan.

In hindsight, these things are probably better done in the morning.

In daylight.

When you can actually see what you're doing.

And with very strict instructions to anyone you get to help.

Otherwise there is a very slight chance that you may end up resembling an Oompa Loompa........ 😂 😂 😂

Hindsight is a great thing!

Now, as I have mentioned in a previous post, the skinny tan oil gives a lovely natural colour, used properly, and you only need a very small amount.

It appears I didn't emphasise this enough when requesting help......

Yep, by the morning I looked vaguely like I'd been tangoed or, as referred to above, like an Oompa Loompa! I also must have caught my hands at some point during the night as my palms are now also wonderfully tanned!

On the plus side, skinny tan does last well and doesn't wash off....... 😂

So that was how Mother's day started! I had lovely cards and presents from Jay, Faye, Billy, Amy & Kie, was brought breakfast in bed and then had dinner and tea at mum and dad's with Big sis and clan. It was a really lovely, family day!

The Wizard of Oz was made reference to on numerous occasions (you can go off people, mentioning no nieces in particular ....) and it was also mentioned that maybe when I got to hospital the following day there would be a sudden panic to take bloods to check my renal function as I looked jaundiced - sister's can be so cruel!!

As it was, jaundice seemed to be the least anyone was bothered about at hospital, although I did start laughing when I was asked I'd I had any skin complaints!! The nurse reassured me she wasn't going to laugh as she'd once used a product that claimed to just give a 'glow', so didn't use gloves and ended up with hands like mine.

The op was discussed in lots of detail and by the end we got the message that it is quite a big deal, based on the number of times the words 'huge', 'major', and 'massive' were used! 😂

It was all good though and the surgeon seemed confident that he could remove all the clots/scar tissue. As for himself, I observed that he was able to walk independently, wasn't wearing really thick glasses (although I have just realised that he could have been wearing contacts 😕), had a good, firm handshake, and had no apparent shaking. So I stayed in the room, agreed to the op and signed my life away - hopefully not literally! (The surgeon didn't seem to find that little 'joke' as amusing as I did! I do hope I haven't upset him.....!)

Tonight it was the Leicestershire Schools Music Service at De Montfort Hall and Faye's primary school had joined with two others to do their African drumming.  The last time they did this concert it was, well, noisy........

As such, I had prepared myself for the worst and had sweets etc in my bag to distract/bribe Billy, but in fact didn't really need them. The whole concert was brilliant! Most of the children taking part this time, apart from Faye's group, we're secondary school age and they were all really good. Billy was really good and even when he got tired and a snuggled in, as soon as someone finished he sat bolt upright to clap and was bouncing and dancing on my knee to the steel drums at the end. He was very loyal though and said Faye's drumming was the best! They did do very well and I'm very proud of her 😊 (although I have to admit, I'm still glad they don't bring the drums home to practice!)

So that's my round up of the last few days...... See you soon!!

Another night out?? Bad Mummy!!!

Yes, twice in two weeks (shock horror) I am deserting my family for a night out with work!!  Last week it was a girly night out with cocktails at Fat Cats, a gorgeous meal at Casa Romana, and more cocktails at the Terrace Bar.  This week It's to celebrate a colleague passing her Masters, a very well deserved celebration for her! I have no idea where we're going and, to be honest, I'm not really bothered!!

Not only that but I'll be out again in a couple of weeks for birthday drinks! It would be rude not to!!

It's been an up and down week and I'm actually surprised I haven't started lunchtime drinking...... Yet (although a suggestion has been made 😂😂😂)!

I have been good in other ways though😇 I've still managed to get to the pool twice this week, even though it's been later.  Last night (known as Sardine night last week) was great. There was still staff training in two lanes but only three other people in the pool in two lanes and the slow lane was empty and all mine! As the night progressed the other swimmers disappeared and the lane separaters gradually hit put away until, by the end I had three quarters of the pool all to myself! It was bliss! I obviously felt the pressure that they were about to kick me out at any time though as I managed to shave five minutes off my 1k time to forty five minutes 😀

That's my exercise for the week complete so bring on the weekend! Woohoo!!!

😁🍹😁🍷😁🍹😁🍷

Bones knitted - time for cast off!!

After many weeks, the time has finally come!!!

It's cast off day for Billy!! 😀

He was very excited and was chatting away to a couple in the waiting room before he was called in. He was as good as gold whilst his cast was sawn off then it was over to x-ray, which he's obviously got used to now as he was happy to sit on his own, instead of on my lap, to have the x-ray taken!

All is well, new bone is forming and he was happily moving his arm around, although did say it hurt a bit when he straightened it so was still walking around with it bent for a while.

Back at the car he decided it would be a good idea to start rubbing the dry skin off his arm........ Then collected a pile and shouted me. When I looked he threw it in the air and said "Look! It's snowing!" 🤢

We met Jay at lunch and went to a gelato cafe for ice cream (and warm chocolate muffin for me 😊 mmmmmm it was yummy!!). He had a red power ranger toy and blaster for his treat and spent the afternoon shooting me (and Faye when she was home from school)! 😂

He's now happily playing in the bath, without his waterproof arm, telling me how nice it is!

Happy days!!

Skinny Tan!!

My new favourite!

Now, I have the type of complexion that needs fake tan. I am the type of white you want your paint to be when decorating.... BRILLIANT WHITE. Pale and pastey, that's me. I don't tan. Well, actually I do tan, eventually, it's just that I'm so pale to start with my 'tan' just colours my skin to a sort of beige.... Everyone else's normal colour.

As such, I have used many different tanning products over the years in an attempt to achieve a healthy 'sun-kissed glow'. Hmmmmm. Many of these attempts have ended in me looking like a strange disease-ridden Tiger 🐯 or an OompaLoompa. OK, so maybe not quite that bad, but you get the idea. And then there's that unique distinct fake tan smell! (what is that smell?!)

Until now.

I came across Skinny Tan on Facebook and the reviews were good, they had a good offer on so I decided to give it a try.  I've only used it once so far and.... I love it!! 😍

I got 2 bottles of the oil and an exfoliating /correcting mitt with my deal and got a tanning mitt and face mitt from ebay. The exfoliating mitt is fab - one side to exfoliate and the other to correct any excess tan. I've never been overly impressed with exfoliating mitts /gloves as most of them remind me of those plastic-type scourers you get for non-stick saucepans, which don't work on your pans any more than the 'exfoliators' work on your body!  However, this exfoliating mitt really works and does leave your skin feeling smooth 😊

The spray oil is easy to apply and a little goes a long way. It smells coconuty which reminds me of Hawaiian Tropic sun oils and Malibu (other favourites too so, to be honest, this was always on track to be a winner from the start!).  It absorbed quickly and by early evening I was tanned. Even my other half was impressed and gave a good endorsement of the product with his comment "you actually look brown, not that orangey colour you usually go"! 😂

I've only used it the once and I'm not sure if or how the 'skinny' part of the product will work but, in all honesty, I don't really care! I feel so much better for just having a bit of colour, that looks natural, doesn't smell, and is still there after a week which also included 2 swimming sessions! It also felt much better turning up at the pool looking 'normal' instead of like a glow-in-the-dark milk bottle!!

I love you skinny tan!!

Sardines!

Well my second night of swimming - and I'm moaning already!

The pool is usually divided into 3; slow, medium and fast. Each area being 2 lanes wide, enough to allow two people to pass comfortably on a 'circuit'.

Tonight,the pool was split into 6 individual lanes, 3 for swim school and 3 for public swimming, so only 1 lane wide for each of the slow, medium, and fast lanes. Not all that easy if there was more than one of you in a lane!  I was quite happy as I was the only one in the slow lane for a while, there were a couple in the fast lane, and when it got to about 4 or 5 in the medium lane, they started moving over to join me.  Ok, so slightly more crowded but still ok.

Until half an hour had gone by.  Then they had staff training too so our 3 lanes became 2 lanes - medium disappeared and we had slow and fast. Hmmmm.......... not the best plan ever.  It created a fast lane with 3 or 4 people in it and a slow lane with around a dozen people - talk about sardines!  (although I realise sardine are much more streamline in the water than we were!). It was a nightmare!  You couldn't swim properly, and I ended up doing about 2 strokes of breaststroke and the rest almost doggy paddle to avoid hitting someone else or the wall!

It wasn't great but I managed my 1 km in 50 minutes so I was happy with that, and even happier to get out of the pool!

Just to end the session nicely, as I was getting changed, I could hear one of the 'medium' swimmers complaining about how she had had to tread water several times because of the 'slow' swimmers.  Whoever she was talking to obviously told her she should have gone in the fast lane then as she snorted indignantly "I couldn't go in the fast lane because I'm not a fast swimmer!".  Well newsflash lady, the majority of us weren't 'medium' swimmers but, as there was only a slow lane or fast lane, we were in the right place - we definitely couldn't go in the fast lane but as far as I can see you could have chosen either so either quit moaning or do one!

It wasn't pleasant for any of us and I can't say that I particularly enjoyed it tonight, but at least most of us just got in with it the best we could.  I guess there's always one and I do hope I don't accidentally drown her if I have the misfortune of being in the same lane as her again...........!

Swimming is back on!!! 🏊🏊🏊

Woohoo! It's been 6 months but I've finally made it back to the pool!

I have to admit that I was quite nervous and self-conscious about getting the cozzie back out but with the help of Skinny Tan (more about that later) I had enough colour to not dazzle everyone else in the pool with my bright white legs!

I checked the timetable several times, half of me willing the times on it to change so that I had an excuse to back out! They didn't. Damn!

After scanning my card to get in (it took 3 attempts, surely that was a sign that this was a bad idea?) I made my way to the changing rooms, feeling quite sick at this point......

5 minutes later and I'd done it! I was IN THE POOL!!!

Now, before I started I knew I couldn't stay in for my usual hour as I had to pick Faye up do I decided not to count lengths (I used to do 40 in an hour so didn't want to put myself under pressure!). That lasted all of... Oh, let me see.... Errrr...... 2 lengths! 

So I counted. I also worked out completely pointless facts in my head whilst trying to distract myself from counting lengths. It didn't work. I just counted lengths And made a mental list of rubbish. Still, who doesn't like a good list?! I Iike lists. My list was a something like this:

1. The pool is 25m long (OK, OK, so I didn't work that one out, I already knew that)

2. If I timed my swimming strokes right, I did an average of 1m per stroke (weirdly this was mainly 23/24 strokes on odd lengths and 25/26 on even lengths. Nope, I couldn't work that one out either. Believe me, I tried!

3. One of my legs is wonky. It's true. I do breast stroke and my left leg did what it was supposed to. My right leg on the other hand (or I suppose that should be foot) did this weird downward, diagonal thing.

4. If I consciously made my right leg for what it was supposed to, my left leg and the rest if me went wonky and I was likely to drown.

5. From the poolside I must look like a duck with a dodgy leg.......

6. I should stop making random lists.

7. I really should stop my brain from thinking sometimes. For my own sanity.

Anyway, with random list making and all, I managed half a mile (32 lengths) in 37 minutes so on my calculations, and yes I worked this out whilst swimming too, if I'd stayed in for an hour, I would have made my kilometer (40 lengths) easily!!

Basically I'm pleased with myself and I actually feel pretty good! I was even almost half an hour early to get Faye! Hence having time to write this blog!

Reading and blogging!!

Well this is a rare opportunity! Two hours on my own to blog, read (We were on a break by Lindsey Kelk if anyone's interested!) , and freeze......... 😂

Jay is running the Adidas Silverstone Half Marathon today so we were up bright and early, we'll maybe not so bright, it was raining! Nevertheless we were up, even the kids got up!

How do kids manage to do that by the way?? On weekdays, when they have to get up at 7.30, I'm shaking them, pulling the covers off them, turning the lights on full and STILL have to physically drag them out of bed. Yet on a weekend, usually when we actually want a lie-in (with the exception of today), they're out of bed and running around full of beans at the crack of dawn!!

Anyway we were all packed up and ready to go when Amy and Kie arrived to babysit for the day. Made good time and we're here in plenty of time. I have to say, and I know it sounds really obvious, but Silverstone is huge!! It's also full of vans selling burgers, hog toasts, doughnuts, waffles.... Yummy........ Think I'd better just stay in my seat and blog/read away!!!

My biggest mistake so far is that I forgot my glasses so can't see a damp thing (or anyone), although it is very colourful!! I just filmed everyone start, then filmed again around the time I figured Jay should be passing again, and I think I did actually see him that time!  Another 40 mins and I think he should be passing again round the other side. I've picked a nice front corner seat in the grandstand so I can see all round. Purely by accident as I didn't even realise they came the other way til I checked the course map!

The sun is starting to break through now thankfully so it might start warming up a bit so I can eat my very healthy picnic (🙁) and carry on reading - only just started it but I've loved all of Lindsey Kelk's other books so I'm sure I'll enjoy this one too!! 📚📖

Running for Papworth 🏃🏃🏃

Not me, obviously!!

My amazing Fiancé has just told me that he has been in contact with the Papworth Hospital Charity for a little while now to arrange fundraising for them through all the running events he is taking part in this year.

This is a fantastic hospital and all of  the staff have always been lovely, helpful, and reassuring and so he is hoping to raise some money so we can give something back to help them continue to offer their specialist treatments to others.

If you are in a position to help in any way, please click on the link to his JustGiving page to make a donation. Thank you Xx

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Jason-Tyler-1968

Stuff the diet!! Times like this call for chocolate, and lots of it!

Well the time has finally arrived for our childminder to leave us for pastures new!

I obviously wish her all the very best in her new life (miles away!) but we will miss her! She has been an almost daily presence in our lives for nearly 4 years, first looking after the kids when Faye was 7 and Billy was just 9 months old!

Faye made a memories folder - she added a couple of really sweet poems and also researched their new home to put an info section on places to go (I haven't had the heart to tell her they already know the area really well!). I've been through and added some bits for Billy along with some photos. It's been quite emotional! Seeeee, I'm big softie really!

We'd already shared a tear when I picked the kids up tonight as she'd given Billy the "nee-nah racing car" he'd made out of Duplo when he was about 2!

Not only has she been a great childminder, she's been a great friend too. We've had lots of laughs, lots of moans, and done lots of plotting! :)

Tomorrow is her last working day, well today actually (I've just noticed the time!) and it's going to be very sad. We're going to miss her!

I guess the diet will have to wait til tomorrow.....

Well I've just watched the darts and a bit of Dave ja view and managed to demolish the remainder of a box of M&Ms! Ooops!

It was worth it though! The diet and swimming plan will still happen..... There's always tomorrow!! 😂