Days of mixed fortune

The last few days have been a roller coaster.







The bad things:

• The weather ( boo hiss)



• The Newcastle United versus Fulham game result ( we lost one nil and still face relegation)



• The traffic in the North East- awful. It never fails to amaze me how dreadful it is. It took me 1.5hrs to get from Darlington to Newcastle City Centre on Friday



• Jonny Wilkinson finally announces he is leaving the Falcons for Toulon. ( I don't blame him but he will be such a miss)



• suffering from a very late night on Saturday- not enough sleep and the old bones can't deal with it these days



• did I mention the ( dire) weather?



• my wonderful friend facing breast cancer. Damn that wretched disease. You know who you are- I am with you every step of the way girl!



• shutting down the office when you are self employed... so much to think about... will we ever get away...?
  
  

The good things:

• going to the test match at Durham on Saturday, England beating the West Indies,and teenager seeing us live on the TV all the way from Oz


• a night out in town watching all the fashions, and having a good laugh with friends


• staying with our good friend M in Newcastle in his lovely city centre flat- what a convenient urban treat, and only minutes from Starbucks. He is a great host. Cloudy Bay with dinner, Champagne to kick off our night out, haddock and poached eggs for breakfast. Lovely!
  
• being out on the town and being three and a half stone lighter, and feeling very confident


• the decorator starting in teenager's room. We have somewhere found the time and strength to get it all stripped down. It is going to look brilliant. And the paper has arrived!


• looking forward to flying out of Heathrow on Friday to Seattle ( a couple of days work in Birmingham first)... we are all packed.
  

Just need to finish all the office work, and check we have remembered everything....

Over and out!

Carlisle, re-cycling, Woolworth's and off to Starbucks

This post is dedicated to Expat Mum. She wasn't aware there is a Carlisle Football Club. Well- here it is. Brunton Park. The reason it came to my mind- I passed it yesterday on the way to a meeting. The fans are absolutely dedicated and although I don't support them I am always pleased to see them do well. I have given you the link so you can visit their website!

Mum came with me for the trip and we went to a lovely restaurant for lunch after the meeting. We got parked right outside ( miracle) having got our hands on a parking permit ( second miracle). The restaurant ( an italian) was called Adriano's. It was very tasty. It is in the middle of Carlisle City Centre, opposite the Civic Centre.

When I returned home I turned my mind to the re-cycling puzzle. We have news here locally that there are piles and piles of recycled paper and tins piling up because the usual purchasers of the material (presumbably for manufacturing the next lot of stuff) aren't buying it because of the credit crunch. As a result, the recycling is being landfilled. How frustrating is that? I am not naturally 'green' but happy to do my bit if the facilities are in place. I wonder how true those headlines are? Anyway, I will plough on.

Woolworth's. Now in administration and its future is looking uncertain. Since it has happened lots of people have 'come out the closet' and told me they are regular shoppers there. I have no objection to the store at all but I wouldn't say I was a regular visitor. In fact, I can't remember when I visited the store last. Anyone else in the UK fond of it? I think the main problem is it hasn't kept up with the times and the competition has subsumed it. Pity- it's been around a long time.

And finally, today. We are off to Lancaster for my hospital check up ( huge bore) then off to a meeting at Starbucks in Preston ( hurray- what a great venue for a meeting). I hope they have decided to bring back the egg nog latte. Apparently it is not on the UK Christmas menu this year : other half and teenager are distraught. It's a bit too sweet for me but they love it.

Hope everyone has a good day and a fun weekend!

Theatre of Dreams

Other half and teenager are off to the Theatre of Dreams today. For the confused- this is the home ground of Manchester United which is called Old Trafford.

Other half, despite his origins ( born and bred North Easterner) is a glory boy, or prawn sandwich man, as fans from other clubs like to call Man Utd fans. I can't understand why he supports them and will enjoy tormenting him about it on a daily basis for the rest of our lives. As a proud Geordie girl, I will always be a proud Toon Army supporter. We may not have the silver ware folks but we have hearts of gold...anyway... I digress....

Since it is his 40th birthday shortly I was gracious and entered an auction to get him two tickets for today's game which is against Stoke. They are going to have eats and drinks in the Red Cafe and kick off is at three. I think it will be a real experience. Teenager is excited, and so is his dad.

Myself? I am off to continue my campaign of Christmas shopping at the Trafford Centre near the football ground. It has one of my favourite shops in it - Selfridges. This sells my favourite wonderful smelling treats- Jo Malone (if you haven't discovered their products yet you are missing a real treat).

Mum is coming with me and once we have deposited the boys at Old Trafford we will head straight to Starbucks for my favourite coffee before tackling the Christmas shopping once again.

* a footnote. Don't worry about teenager's allegience. He is a die hard Toon Army man. My dad and I worked very hard on this when he was a wee mite, and successful indoctrination was achieved. Other half tried hard, but the black and white army claimed another one for its own.

McDonalds in Newcastle for free WI- FI

Hi folks

Have just jetted into a McDonald's in Newcastle to check my emails and blog. Can't say it would be a venue of choice but it does free Wi- Fi now and the coffee is pretty good ( surprisingly!). It costs £5 per hour for internet access in Starbucks. I love Starbucks but £5 an hour?? I am sure they will change their policy soon when they realise loads of places are offering the service free ( such as Costas). Have the irritation of receiving emails but not being able to send them - something horribly technical to do with the server apparently.

Need to go to PC World to get it sussed out- groan. I hate going there.

Week is going well even though there has been a few schedule changes. It goes with the territory with this job though it can be frustrating. Corbridge cottage is lovely- much better than the other one I talked about on a previous listing. Very central, very comfortable and cosy. More about it when I have time. We have eaten out a couple of times so far- in the local chinese ( Artisam) and at a local pub, The Golden Lion.

Weather is horrible. Ok yesterday ( we even saw some sunshine!!) but raining and dark again today. I feel so sorry for Morpeth up the road- they have experienced some seriously bad flooding.

Off to Corbridge to meet up with mum - a restful afternoon ahead

( Ps- rumours flying around about Newcastle United). An Indian Billionaire ( sixth richest man in the world!!??) might be buying- I hope he does!