Oh What a Glorious Thing to Be

 A healthy grow-up busy busy bee, not sure it's glorious but I have certainly been a busy, busy bee this week!

Monday I should have had as a day off work to compensate for working the weekend but my boss asked me to come in as we were so short staffed. Bah, it was a crazy busy day and I was a little late leaving to make an assignation with Soo. We were heading over to our friend Simon's house, via mine, to celebrate his 40th. The detour was to collect his present which we assembled on his doorstep before knocking on the door and wheeling it in. To say he was left speechless would be an understatement!

We have had a long standing joke about a hostess/drinks trolley so decided with another friend Roz to track one down for his birthday.
All I can say is, if I would have realised how fricking difficult that was going to be I would have suggested something else!?!
Who would have thought how near impossible it would be to buy a trolley for less than £40 on the bay of E?
Who would have thought they would be so popular that they were selling for crazy money and that I would get outbid again and again and again!

Finally I won one! finally.

It arrived and had clearly been owned by a very heavy smoker who couldn't be arsed with cleaning.
I like to imagine some glamorous Norma Desmond type, lying on a chaise drinking neat gin from her trolley set at arms reach.
All I know is it took me over 3 hours and a lot of elbow grease to get it into the state you see above.
Sadly we couldn't find any Babycham, so we bought Cinzano and some splendid charity shop glasses to serve it in.

A marvelous night was had by all, drinking and laughing and eating Chinese takeaway until our eyes bulged.


Tuesday, I thought it was Wednesday. In a panic I worked like a woman possessed, to such an extent I actually frightened my colleagues! (Got to keep them on their toes or something)

I got home ate some soup and headed out to the cinema to see 'Oz - The Great and Powerful' I loved the start and I loved the end, but sadly I had to sit through the bit in the middle.

Wednesday was my last day at work (WooHoo) as I had negotiated Thursday off instead of Monday.
It was also another night out, this time dinner with girlfriends. The company was fantastic but the food was lacking and the restaurant absolutely fucking freezing!
 I was actually glad to get home into the warm and have a mug of Ovaltine, I know, I know, I'm just so rock and roll.

Thursday and the Easter holidays have begun!

It was bliss to begin with, a lie-in, mug of tea in bed with a good book. Mosey on into town to browse the shops. Home with a cream cake to a missed phonecall from my Mum, I ring back.
 'We thought we would come over for a visit this afternoon'
'We' is my Mum and Dad, plus my Aunt, her partner and my cousin's daughter all of whom are visiting from Germany.

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT the house is an absolute pigsty, there is stuff everywhere, I mean everywhere!
 and I have an hour and a half to clear it..........
 I spent that time in a demented frenzy shoving as much stuff as would fit there into cupboards, doing the washing up, cleaning the toilet etc.
By the time Himself gets home they have left  and I am a pathetic shell of a woman whom he thankfully feeds with lots of pasta and wine.

Friday I did bloody nothing. Oh apart from watching all the BBC4 programmes on David Bowie, eat chips and drink wine. Now that is what I call a Good Friday.   

Having established she is a huge Jane Austen fan, I decided to take my cousin's daughter (my second cousin?) Chiara to Bath for the day. Unfortunately my carefully laid plans go badly array thanks to First Great Western trains. Which means poor Chiara gets to experience not just Bath but the English train service at it's very finest.

First train is cancelled  with no explanation which meant a 45minutes wait at the station.

Second train caught but we have to change at Swindon, cue another hour's wait between trains in the bitter cold!*&%!

We finally board a train to Bath so full of rugby fans we were actually crushed against the door unable to move!
Thankfully it was only a 20 minute journey and we were crushed on the right side of the train which meant we were off the train first, and very glad to be so.

       
Bath was as lovely as ever, but absolutely packed. I have honestly never seen such a queue at the Roman Baths in all the times I have been, even in the height of summer.

We headed straight to the Jane Austen Centre and spent a blissful time.

We then visited the Circus, the Royal Crescent and The Assembly Rooms.

We shopped and stopped for a much needed spot of 

before heading to Pultney Bridge to browse the second hand book shops. Finally we headed for home. Thankfully the journey home went like clockwork.



Today we headed over to Mum and Dad's with my brother and his family. My Sister and her other half were visiting for the day, so along with the German contingent it was a truly full house.
It's weird because whilst I love my family very much, I always seem to get to a point in the day where I have had enough. I just need to get away from all the people and all the noise and have some quiet time.

So here I am back home, having some me time in front of the t.v with a bag of crisps.

Happy Easter.