Wonderful daughter Ellie was 18 on Monday so on Tues we went out for a meal with Ben (my brother) , his partner Amanda and me, Jake and 3 of Ellie’s friends Hannah, Charlotte and Kate. We had a very lovely meal at one of my favourite restaurants – it is just down the road from where I work and we go there a lot for leaving dos and general celebrations.

My friend Val’s son Oliver is raising money to go to Peru next year to do some voluntary work. He is doing lots of different things but one of his ideas was a promise auction where he and his friend Tommy who is also going sold their services for various tasks like baking, ironing, DIY ect. So I paid him to make Ellie’s cake and they did a fab job. Here she is with the cake at the restaurant.

I wish her every happiness in the world and am so proud of her. She has had a lot to  cope with in the past year, whilst doing A levels and she has been fab all the way through – so has Jake. We are off to Disneyland Paris on Tues for her birthday treat and she thoroughly deserves a very special time. They have both been so supportive all the time to me and they are great!

I travel a lot for work which is lovely – nowhere glamorous on first class flights but just round Yorkshire on the train (I don’t drive) which gives me lots of chance to read and think and look out the window. I love trains (which is good considering how long I spend on them these days!) and really enjoy meeting new people and the excitement of going somewhere. I will eventually get my own car – finances permitting but will still travel by train as you never know who you will meet!

Today I went to Northern College to see one of my students. The college is in a historic house which has the most lovely grounds and it is still very snowy there.

This picture was taken en route.

The following pics were taken at the college – I love the letter box which looks particularly good in contrast with the snow – all we need is a robin and that could be next year’s Xmas card sorted!

Have been doing various things to the house in the last couple of weeks so thought I would share some pics here. The loft conversion is virtually finished so here are some pics of Jake’s pc and gaming area and his new shower room which he and Ellie really love.

The little bedroom is still to be done but I have been diverted by Xmas stitching most of which I cannot post here due to the need to keep it secret or the fact that my old camera is appalling at taking shots of anything close up – newer one still at the menders due to slight accident in Nepal with water bottle!

Have also had to have new kitchen equipment as cooker blew up (literally very big bang!) for third time this year. Decided that at £70 a time it was now no longer worth mending so downsized from the old range cooker to a very nice new one. Here it is looking very shiny and me doing an artistic shot ( a la Crazy Aunt Purl) reflected in the shiny mirror front.

Have also been doing some more exciting decorating as have put up all the Xmas decs. I love decorating for Christmas and have to really restrain myself not to go over the top!. Last year I made loads more things and posted pics of them but these are my current decorations on the mantel piece in my lounge

And of course the song goes – ‘so what have you done , another year over and a new one just begun’. I know it is not Christmas yet but here we have been celebrating early as we are off to Spain next weekend (hurrah) for some r and r in the warm. So this weekend we had our now traditional pre Xmas party and celebrated early with Xmas dinner and some of the pressies.

My brother Ben came to us today for pressies and dinner – sadly his partner Amanda had to work. They got the kids some fab Xmas pressies from them so big thanks. The first was a fajita cooker that you use on the table top – it’s a small griddle with pan included. Jake’s favourite food in the whole world is fajitas so he was thrilled.

They also bought them a raclette which is another table top grill which comes with little pans – you cut up meat, fish and veg,  top with cheeses and grill your own food at the table – a very sociable way of eating. They have had one for years and the kids love it so so they are very pleased to have their own. We are going to try it out tomorrow then use it for New Year when my sister and her kids are here.

Below are some pics from the party and our xmas dinner.

So another year over and what have we done – well loads and loads as usual, holidays, work, the build, Nepal the new life stuff – been a very, very busy year. I have also had this blog for just over a year – forgot to check when the date was but sometime last Nov I think.

Am really looking forward to next year which is nice to be able to say as there have been some bits of this year that have been very stressful!! But that is all over now – still got a bit of decorating to finish but that will get done. Have been having such a good time just recently and am looking forward to lots more of the same wonderful stuff.

So I hope that you all have a lovely festive season wherever you are! My best wishes to you and yours.

A couple of weeks ago I had a reunion in Yorkshire with some old friends – we all were at college here (we met 25 years ago) and have met up at intervals ever since but the last time was about 6 years ago so it was wonderful to see them all.

We had a great time revisiting old haunts on the University campus, doing a tour of the new pubs in town and having a curry and were very pleased to see that we can still hack it – we started at 2pm and were still going at 1am which is not bad for a group of forty somethings!

Here is a pic of the guys – most of whom are called Dave bizzarely enough – and girls in one of the local hostelries.

So a lovely few weekends – we are having a party here next week – my usual pre – Xmas event  – an excellent time is being had!!

Have had a weekend of very, very happy stuff as this weekend have been at Bradley Wood on our last building weekend before we go to Nepal. Brilliant weather, brilliant fun with the team. There was a County Cub camp on at the same time so there were 700 cubs on site all enjoying themselves doing lots of fab activities and they had a disco most of the day so we were dancing while building. I spent Sat doing drains and most of Sun building a wall out of rough stone on my own.

That really represents how much I have learnt in the last year as I would not have had the confidence to build that last year but I was quite happy doing it on my own. Sorry for the lack of pics – my camera is still at the menders and I did take some on my new flash phone but can’t work out how to transfer them to the computer!

Project Nepal means so much to me . When I applied I didn’t know if I would physically be able to cope given my previous problems with walking. But here I am 18 months later and I am fine – the odd ache but no more than anyone who has spent all day bending building a wall and I am feeling very fit and healthy generally.

Am having a party this weekend with all my friends to celebrate – partly a loft conversion warming (though not all of it is finished) , partly to say goodbye to everyone before I go away and partly as a celebration of us all getting through the last year. It has been a tough one for so many of my close friends – lots of difficult things to cope with but we are all here and we are happy. Hope that you are too.

Well Jake is safely in bed in his new room at last – have spent all day building flat pack furniture with him and finished putting up the curtains at 9pm. Still got to have some furniture delivered on Fri and put up posters and move all important gaming chair, Nintendo and Wii back in but is done. Big hugs to the kids for this as they have been fantastic – Ellie painted loads last week and Jake is a dab hand with a screwdriver. And I got to use my new power drill – liberation!

I didn’t think it would get done ever but it has – now only the rest of the trashed house to fix! However it will get done and we will get there. Ellie has gone to Kosovo on her youth education project and she has texted to say she is enjoying it. She is a star and deserves extra big doses of future happiness for the support she has given me and Jake. Jake thanked me tonight for getting his room done – he is such a sweetie.

Am having trouble uploading pics of the new room due to technical problems at the blog end but here is one bit. It is a hard room to photo anyway being an L shape attic and in this pic the carpet looks a bit strange – looks better in real life and Jake really likes it – colour scheme is his choice.

Anyway will not be posting for a little bit as have a busy week ahead sorting out stuff ready to be away lots – have three events in next few weeks and a holiday in Spain – mother has just e-mailed me a pic of her in the jacuzzi – can’t wait.

Life is good. Sad things happen but they are outweighed by the kindness of everyone else.

But it looks like the loft conversion will be finished on schedule about the end of next week (hurrah!). Not that the builders haven’t been very lovely but it will be nice to not have to listen to all the banging and not come home to 2 hours worth of cleaning and mopping every night after an evening’s teaching.

Thank God for Henry ! The Henry in question is my wonderful vac who has done sterling work this week with all the black dust, wood shavings and bits of plasterboard.

I am posting extensive pics of the build for my Mum to see the progress not because I am a sad woman with nothing else to do.

I am now getting on to the fun bit which is the interior decorating – I love the design bit (hence my addiction to the Sims) and would happily move house and interior decorate constantly if it wasn’t for all the hassle that goes with it. My ideal would be to have enough money to do a bit of property development (preferably in Spain as it is nice and warm!) on houses I did not have to live in.

However it has not been too bad at all (she says after vast quantities of wine have been consumed this week to keep nerves steady in coping with cleaning and working all hours God sends as well) and it is nearly finished!

I am very pleased with the end results- Jake has a lovely big room with fantastic views out over the trees to the moors and a cute little shower room – which will look fab once finished  (I spent a very happy two hours in B and Q yesterday choosing fixtures and it will look very classy.) I am going for a contemporary look with a very nice sink and some fab dark metallic mosaic tiles. He has chosen a colour scheme of red,black, white and grey and I have just about got everything else sorted or ordered.

We will still have Jake’s old room which is going to be a study/guest room with just about enough room for a single bed (don’t worry Mum) and desk. Next step is to get painting and find some decorators to do hall, landing and stairs as I do not have time for that bit.

As a bit of light relief from pics of the messy stuff here are a couple of pics of my lovely new firepit/bar-b-que to replace the rusted through chiminea which we tested out last week and of the beautiful clematis that is in bloom in my garden. And of the lovely rose bush my students bought me last week when they left. Thank you very much all of you (and for the chocs and wine – they have come in very handy this week!). Rest assured I have been talking to it!

Will post some of the Rome pics when I get chance….. now off to play moving house on the Sims – so much easier!

We are now about half way through the build and so far so good. Despite everyone telling me horror stories about the amount of horrible black dust there has been little mess really apart from the bit where they took the  ceiling down which was only to be expected. However the builders have been fab and they sealed all of the rooms so there was very little mess anywhere but the hall, landing and stairs which I have spent most of the last three days mopping! However it is all looking very good – have not been up in the roof space yet but it looks like it is going to be a lovely big room for Jake and we will have an additional bathroom – (yay three toilets to clean!). The stairs are going in this week and then I will be able to go up and and see it and work out how much room we have for furniture etc. Jake has chosen his colour scheme and we have bought various bits this week like the bed and chosen tiles, flooring etc so it is all coming together. I was absolutely dreading the whole experience as I hate mess and am really obsessive about cleaning but it really has been remarkably stress free so far thanks to the lovely builders. I am so glad as things are still really busy at work and I would not have had the time for major clean ups.

Below is a little slide show to show you the build so far. 

This weekend was supposed to be the great garden fettling weekend (fettling is a Yorkshire term meaning mend/sort out etc.). That was before the builder phoned up to say he was putting up the scaffolding for our loft extension on Friday and it rained heavily all day Saturday.

So there was no painting of decking (as it was covered in lots of bits of stone dust and pointing (wet dust at that)) and no mowing of lawns or cutting of hedges. However we did manage to sort out the ongoing computer problems (by buying Ellie a new laptop as monitor is officially dead and would have cost 1/3 of price of laptop to replace it!). Ellie is very happy as the Sims game now works lots faster than on old crumbly computer and I am a bit poorer.

Have also cleared out Jake’s room in preparation for the build which starts properly tomorrow. This has been planned for a long time (well since we moved in 2 and a 1/2 years ago) but I am not really looking forward to it as anyone I mention it to just says ‘oh my God the dust!’ and not that I am obsessive (well not that bad!) but am not looking forward to the next month of upheaval. However it will all be over soon and my dear mother has promised me lots of R and R in her new hot tub when I finally get to Spain later in the year to make up for it. 

Have done virtually no embroidery this week as have been at work late three evenings and this coming week looks to be the same. We have new modules starting and I have loads of marking so it will be a very busy next two months. However come July 14th I finish my full time teaching so that is something to look forward to and come Sept I can start working on my portfolio for my City and Guilds embroidery course that I plan to start after Xmas.

All I have done is play on the Sims for a bit of light relief (extending their houses is so easy you just click and drag – no dust at all!) which my lovely daughter bought me the last three stuff packs for that I did not have as presents this week (thanks sweetie!) and generally maintain domestic harmony (well try to!)

Here are a couple of pics of the scaffolding showing the back of the house and the view from the back door – the roof starts coming off in the morning!

So if you do see me over the next month – pat me gently on the hand, offer me wine (or chocolate depending on time of day!) and don’t mention dust!