2008 Ta Da List

Okay - here it is. It probably looks pretty random to anyone reading it.

One thing led to other things being listed and then I ended up going through some of my journals to feel the gaps.

You can see the previous lists here and here.

• Visited Italy
• Visited Hong Kong
• Visited Thailand
• Saw a good chunk of South Island
• Become more confident driving long distances (after driving around South Island a couple of times!)
• Journalled Christmas
• Booked the wedding
• Made and sent wedding invites
• Saw friends and family in the UK
• Made my 27 things to do aged 27 list and started ticking things off
• Stood up for what I believed in at work
• Held the fort
• Voted in NZ for the 1st time
• Bought a bike (and accompanying safety equipment)...and even used it occassionally!
• Went back to Brisbane and Queensland
• Walked in the rainforest treetops
• Went on a road trip with my Mum and had the best time
• Tried on wedding dresses and found one I love (not bought it yet though)
• Graeme become Corporate Accountant at PNCC
• Started wearing skirts and dresses again (& enjoying it!)
• Did a lot of scrapbooking
• Got a new camera
• Stopped taking the pill
• Found the most amazing wedding venue
• Got a new water system and HRV for the house
• Read way too many vampire novels and fell in love with most of them
• Got granted returning residents visa’s indefinitely
• Bought a treadmill (I need to use it more though!)
• Attended ANZAC Dawn Parade in Christchurch and listened to the Last Post with goose pimples on my arms
• Started a year long scrapbooking project which is now ¾ done
• Celebrated 3 years in NZ
• Blogged with much more enthusiasm and regularity compared to 2007
• Took part in my first ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap
• Finally upgraded my antiquated cell phone (which I’d had since June 2005 and it wasn’t up-to-date when I bought it!)
• Kept a gratitude journal for approx. 11 months of the year
• Found one of my most favourite places on earth (Queenstown)
• Finally gave in and got prescription sunglasses and wish I’d done it earlier

Christmas in Review

I can't believe a week ago was Christmas Eve. The time has just flown but at the same time Christmas seems like a long time ago now!

It was incredibly quiet but a good time was had by all!

On the day itself we were up reasonably early for us (and given it was a public holiday) - at 8am, opening our stockings. We then went into the lounge to open our other presents.

We did well present wise and love all our gifts! Having the day to ourselves meant we could actually each watch DVDs we'd been given for Christmas.

After present opening we had bacon sandwiches for breakfast and took the dog for a walk. And after watching our DVDs we had amazing Roast Lamb done on the BBQ. Then we played a bit of Singstar and spoke to family on the phone. It was a fun day and very relaxed.

And that's how it's been since the big day really.

As usual when I'm on holiday my sleeping patterns got completely out of whack so I am trying to get myself into a better routine to make it easier to go back to work. The routine may go out of the window tonight though. We don't actually have any plans at this stage - will see how we feel. There's something happening in town if we decide to be social but it may be us at home with some drinks and ringing in the new together. We shall see.

Been to the shops a few times to get bits and bobs. Our biggest Sales purchase has been a new camera which I am totally in love with. And slightly obsessed with the macro setting too but hopefully that will pass as I learn a bit more about the different functions!

My other obsession has been the Twilight books. OMG! How did I not read them before now?! With the movie being released in NZ on Boxing Day and all the mentions I had heard of the series over the last few months I put the first book - Twilight (by Stephenie Meyer) on my Christmas list. Graeme kindly obliged and I started reading it on Boxing Day....and didn't stop until yesterday when I had worked my way through all 4 books! They are fabulous and I wholeheartedly recommend them! And so I also dragged Graeme to the film last night. As is always the way for me - it was nowhere near as good as the book but I loved it and definetly want to see it again.

And I've been working on my 2008 Ta Da's list - hope to get it posted before midnight but if not it will be posted over the next few days.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and wishing you all the very best for 2009 and whatever it may bring!

Have yourselves a merry little Christmas!

Just wanted to post a message wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2009.

Graeme has now finished work and we are on holidays! Yay!

We are meeting some friends for Christmas Eve dessert tonight and then will come back and snuggle up to sleep so Santa can visit!

Hope to be back soon with a photo round-up of Christmas.

Take care everyone.

Makeover!

I decided to give our blog a bit of a makeover - it's way past due!

I changed the template - just to one of the blogger ones at this stage - may try designing one soon and I made my own header using a photo from Lake Tekapo.

Would love to hear what you think and please do let me know if there are any glitches I need to attend to.
The biggest problem I have spotted so far is the width of the blog post column - I had to go back and edit some of the photos so they didn't 'hang off the edge'...may have to see if I can widen the column.

So hope it all looks okay on everyone else's screen!

I'm off to learn how to recycle candle wax which was the other thing on my project list for today!

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a wee Christmas message.

4 more sleeps!

Can you believe how fast the time is going? It's flying by.

We've been fairly busy with end of year and christmas stuff and looking forward to our holidays. I officially finished work on Friday and Graeme finishes on Christmas Eve and then we don't have to go back until the new year so we will be getting a good break.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for some decent weather so the dog can get lots of walks, we can have lots of BBQs and the garden can get a tidy-up!

I've been keeping up with my Christmas journal which is making me feeling rather festive.

The house is decorated but I want to get some housework done this week so we are tidy and clean before the big day.

My presents are all bought apart from one more for Graeme which I hope to get tomorrow.

And then I just need to wrap Graeme's presents and we will be all ready to go!

I've been watching Christmas movies this week. I own Elf on DVD (how could anyone not?!) so watched that last Monday when I had a day off.

TV here has Christmas movies every day up until Christmas now and tonight we have Bad Santa which I seem to recall being pretty amusing so we will watch that or tape it tonight.

Shrek the Halls was on a wee while ago which was great fun!

And even though I've seen it countless times I will be tuning in for Shrek when it's on over Christmas!

Christmas dinner is decided too - a leg of lamb (organic if I can get it - we will see) with some BBQ'd veggies followed with lemon meringue (made with lemons from the garden). Should be super tasty - all I have to do is fight the crowds out at the shops to buy the ingredients!

And I'll leave you with this picture - the gorgeous Christmas bouquet my boss got me to say thank you for all my hard work (which will be hard for some of you to believe I am sure!)...isn't it beautiful?

The twigs have emerged!

We (when I say we I obviously mean Graeme) checked the twigs for spiders and declared them to be beastie free so I brought them in tonight and got them all decorated.

How festive!

We also made Candy Cane Cookies (recipe here) and I couldn't resist making messages with the candy canes like the heart picture in the recipe.

But do you know how hard it is to make a G with candy canes?!

And I am very happy indeed as I am now having a 4 day weekend!

Getting my weekends back!

I've had to work the last 3 Saturdays and it's been strange having one day weekends. I get time off in lieu but it's just not the same as having Saturdays and Sundays off. It was a good part of my job that required me to work though and I got some great shots of the mountains from the planes to Christchurch and Auckland so it wasn't so bad.

It will be nice to get my 2 day weekends back though!

And it's not long until I finish up for the Christmas break. I will be off from Saturday 20th December right through to Saturday 3rd January so will have a nice long break.

I've been decorating a bit for Christmas already - I have 2 stars up in our large front window (see photo above...and how amazing does that sky look?!) and some red felt Christmas trees out in the lounge.

I've also made a button tree and have put that on the dining table with a snowman ornament that Graeme's mum bought us a few years back (and it miraculously got half way across the world without breaking when we emmigrated to NZ!)

The Christmas twigs haven't emerged yet - I am waiting to de-spider them while Graeme is around before I bring them in the house.

I'm also keeping up with my Christmas journal...all this Christmas spirit is making me feel really jolly!

The List...

Here it is in all it's glory...27 frivolous, fun, serious and life changing things...

27 things to do at 27

1. Buy a wedding dress DONE
2. Write my 2nd 50k novel
3. Paint something ceramic DONE
4. Scrapbook (at least) 27 photos DONE
5. Read (at least) 27 books DONE
6. Get to 70kg or less
7. Spend a day watching movies DONE
8. Try out a spray/fake tan
9. Curl/colour my hair DONE (colour)
10. Write a letter to my future self DONE
11. Take 365 photos (at least 1 each day) DONE
12. Walk Rhett (at least) 52 times DONE
13. Make tiramisu DONE
14. Eat (at least) 365 pieces of fruit
15. Be a good Samaritan DONE
16. Write a poem DONE
17. Choose 1 song per month for my 27 compilation album DONE
18. Read a classic DONE
19. Blog (at least) 52 times DONE
20. Kiss Graeme (at least) 3 x 365 times (1,095) DONE
21. Lay on the warm grass & make up stories from the cloud ‘pictures’ DONE
22. Incorporate rainbows into my life DONE
23. Document my time with Graeme ready to celebrate 10 years together DONE
24. Moisturise my overworked hands every single day DONE
25. Vote (after careful consideration) for Prime Minister DONE
26. Develop & maintain a sensible house cleaning routine
27. Choose a wedding ring & an inscription DONE

And more on Christmas...

I mentioned Christmas briefly in my post yesterday but more in passing and in a I-can't-believe-how-fast-it's coming-round kind of way.



Christmas will be strange for us this year.


It will be the first year that we haven't spent any of the day with our families.



Way back at the start of our relationship (in 2000 can you believe?!) I struggled with the festive season as I was living 500 miles away from my family and friends and felt strange about spending the day with Graeme's family. That year, we decided to stay at home in our wee rented flat in the tenements of Glasgow but had a visit from Graeme's mum.


In the years that followed in Scotland we always spent some time with Graeme's family over Christmas and also flew down to Essex to spend time with my family as well.


Looking back - I wish I had taken as many photos then as I do now as it would be great to have a record of those Christmas'.


In the three years we have been in New Zealand, two of our Christmas' were spent with my Dad and last year we flew back to the UK for Christmas.


So this year feels quite strange. Not bad but strange.


We have had a busy year and I think it will be good for us both to have some time together at home to relax and recharge our batteries. We already have a lot planned for next year (not least getting married...finally!) so it will be good to take some time out and talk about what we want to do and how we want to do it.


And who knows what our future Christmas' will be like. I imagine next years will be low key rather like this year but after that anything could happen....!



So seeing how I am currently obsessed with taking photos and documenting my life I thought taking this class would be an awesome idea! It will be interesting to look back in years to come at exactly what we did with ourselves over the festive season.











I'm really quite excited as I am using this class as the opportunity to introduce festivities into our lives....I have already a few decorations (we haven't had a Christmas tree the whole time we have been in NZ but I had some rather festive looking twigs one year which I will be reusing this year!) but have gradually been buying a few more over the last few weeks.



I have made a head start on my Christmas journal so I am all ready to go and I will hopefully get round to posting some more photos of it on this blog as I go along.

So watch this space...the class starts next Monday and I am hoping that despite a busy couple of weeks I will be able to keep up and come out on the 6th January with 37 journal entries all prettied up with festive paper and photos!

1 month to go

Wow - this time next month it will be Christmas day...crazy huh? How can it almost be that time again when it feels like last Christmas was only yesterday? !

I have a lieu day from work today as I was working on Saturday (and will be the next 2 Saturdays too) so I am trying to get my ducks in a row....as usual I am finding myself hugely distracted by other more interesting things though. So far, I have put the dishwasher on but not unloaded it, put the washing on but not hung it out and washed my hair but not dried it. Could this be the day for getting things only half done? I hope not!

Had some extremely warm weather here - yesterday was actually horrible because it was ridiculously hot and humid and there is no air conditioning at work which makes me very grumpy! Today isn't so bad as there is a strong breeze. This is what our HRV thermometer was telling us on Sunday afternoon....I am so glad I don't have to live in my roof space!

And here are the windmills from my last post taken from a different angle...from a plane on Saturday afternoon...

I have had a request to post my 27 things @ 27 list which I will do...maybe later today but right now I have to get my hair dried as Graeme just called and we have a lunch date.

Ciao!

Just a quick one

I really did mean to do a longer post today with a few more photos but we just had a complete computer scare. I logged on earlier this evening ready to download my latest photos from the camera and blog with them when I couldn't access our Shared Pictures file - aaaah! Cue full panic! We did back this file up a few months ago but I had a major fit when I realised that we hadn't backed up any of the latest Australia or South Island pictures.

Luckily after Graeme had a long look and tried various things he managed to restore the folder but now he needs to get on the computer to do some work plus we need to run a back up of our photos!

So - if you are reading this - please learn from our panicked lesson and back up today :-)

I'll leave you with this...some stormy clouds over the wind turbines at Ashhurst on our walk with Rhett yesterday.....

Bye Mum, see you in less than a year!

Wow - was it really over 2 weeks ago that I last posted?

The time while Mum was here just flew by but we really did have the best time ever. The travelling was great but in the end it felt really good to get home and then spend another week with Mum at home.

We did lots of cool stuff but at the same time it just didn't feel that she was here long enough.

We dropped her off at Wellington Airport on Friday afternoon and as always, it was horrible. I hate saying goodbye. But it's really great to know that we will be seeing Mum plus other close family and friends in less than a year when the wedding rolls round. And I really should be busy enough between now and then that the time should just fly!

After my last post I took the weekend off, Graeme flew down to Dunedin to meet us and we had a wonderful 3 days of travelling and playing tourists. Queenstown is quite possibly the most beautiful place on earth! I LOVED it and can't wait to get back and explore some more as we really didn't have long enough there. Here is just a taster of how gorgeous the place is (and yes I do want to try that parachute gliding thing next time I'm there!):

As part of my 27 things I want to do aged 27 I decided I wanted to take at least one photo every day. I have been keeping up so far and had a rather difficult task today of picking one photo to represent each day since my birthday. I am now all caught up. Not sure if I want to post all of them but I will post some every now and again. This one is the first one for the year taken on my birthday....

Anyway, will try and get on again soon with some more beautiful photos. We've had cracking weather today and if the kiwi summer continues like this I will be spending HEAPS of time outside so you might not hear from me very often!

Take Care x

Still on the road...

Just a quick one today and I'm afraid to say no photos because I am typing this from an internet cafe. Tried to get photos off the camera onto the laptop last night and the battery on the camera went meaning none of the photos came across - argh! I will try again later so keep your fingers crossed!
I am writing this from Gore which we are visiting for a few hours. The whole week has been good so far. Mum has been enjoying the travels and seems quite happy milling around when I am at meetings. It's been good to catch up with people workwise and see they are (mostly) doing okay and enjoying NZ!
We are driving back to Dunedin this afternoon and have a big weekend planned! I have 3 days off and we are going to be proper tourists!
Highlight of the trip so far...taking Wednesday evening off (my birthday) and going to see the blue penguins at Oamaru - highly recommended - was amazing!
Hope to be back with photos soon!

Blogging on the road...

I am writing this post from a motel in Wellington. I am excited because my Mum is due to fly into Wellington just after midnight tonight! It's been over 9 months since I last saw her.

We are staying overnight in Wellington and then hit the InterIslander ferry tomorrow across to Picton. I have to go over to South Island for work and Mum is coming along for the ride! It's going to be great! I will have some company for all the long driving and Mum gets to see a lot of South Island for a fraction of the price it would normally cost!

It will be weird being away from home and Graeme on my birthday but I have booked Mum and me to do something pretty cool to try and make up for it. We are going to be in Oamaru so we are going to see the Blue Penguins which are gorgeous! I had my photo taken with one on my lap when we first arrived in New Zealand and it will be even better to see them in their natural habitat!

I am also keeping my fingers crossed that we see some seals in Kaikoura and some snow capped mountains as we drive around!

I will try and post as we travel round... so watch this space!

Of course - there was a certain someone who didn't look happy when I started packing my suitcase....

Have a good week!

Spring = Sprung

October has always been my favourite month...due in part to it being my birthday month (hint, hint!). I used to love it because of the Autumn colours and now I love it because it's slap bang in the middle of New Zealand spring.

Everything seems green and lush and new (the green and lush coming mostly from ALL the rain we've had) and it makes me want to slow down a little and enjoy my surroundings.

In preparation for my 28th year (how did that come around so darn quick?) I have come up with a list of 27 things to do aged 27. It's a mix of serious and frivulous and a lot of it has to do with slowing down and enjoying my surroundings. If I'm feeling particularly brave maybe I'll share the list on the blog over the next few weeks.

My Mum leaves the UK tomorrow for her trip down-under. She's got a few days in Aussie before heading over here. It will be GREAT to see her and I have a few things planned to keep her busy including a whirlwind tour of South Island. I hope to take lots of photos and will try and get some posted while we are away. Graeme has to work so will be staying at home but we are catching up with him for a few days in the middle of our trip.

I've got a pretty busy week on the lead up to Mum's visit but all is good!

Beautiful views

There are 101 things I should be doing right now (sleep being one of those) but all I really want to do is keep looking at this photo...

...and think about how gorgeous New Zealand is.

Can I also make a reading suggestion? Everyone should read this book which I did today and it was amazing. I am feeling very inspired right now.

Aussie

We went to the Gold Coast in Australia for a few days. The weather was lovely, we had lots of fun and it was really great to catch up with family (Thanks for letting us stay The Kelly's!). Here's a collage of some of our photos.




Lots of bright colours. We spent the day wandering around Brisbane, went to O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat, took a walk along Surfers Paradise, visited my Auntie's new barbers salon and spent some time chilling by the pool. Very relaxing!


On the way to Wellington to catch the plane to Australia we also visited a wedding venue which we are in the process of booking a date with (more on that later!).

More outdoors...

It's good being outdoors

Now the weather's getting a bit better we are spending more and more time outdoors

which makes me happy. Sunshine and blue skies and clouds and warmth....

Craziness

I cleaned the pantry tonight. I pulled everything out, chucked away anything that looked old or we didn't use, wiped down all the shelves and put everything back in a tidy fashion. I even got the step ladders out so I could reach the top shelf to clear it out.

This is so not me. I loathe cleaning and will use any form of procrastination to avoid it.

But this is what happens when I know Mum is coming to stay...I have to at least pretend to be a domestic goddess and that I remember everything about cleaning that she ever expected me to learn.

So I have 6 weeks to get the place tip top and ready for motherly inspection :-)
I am so excited she is coming to stay and at least this means the hosue will get cleaned once this year!


And in other news - my new phone has a dent in it after only 4 days...what is it with me and dropping electronic equipment? !

About bloody time...

Yeah, it's been ages, I know.

We've been busy

• working
• hibernating
• avoiding the rain
• admiring signs of spring
• watching the grass grow into a forest helpless to do anything about it
• buying new pink phones (well just one)
• buying comedy dvds (Bill Bailey, Peter Kay and Billy Connolly - ten bucks each - bargain)
• meeting flights at 4am
• showing 40 18-21 year olds the joys of NZ and Auckland
• getting new jobs (just one of us but guess which one...)
• planning trips to sunnier shores

I'll try to be a little more regular but it might be tough bearing in mind the rest of this year is pretty much mapped out in front of us and is gonna be pretty damn busy with

• trips to see the rellies
• looking at wedding venues
• having a visit from Lyn
• working out a long term plan for the city
• working 50 hour weeks
• briefing 150 18 years olds going overseas next year (and their parents)
• going to the beach
• some home improvements
• turning 27 (how is that possible?)
• dusting
• mowing the forest

Puddles and Rodents

It was a wet weekend with lots of rain and puddles...and rain is what I can hear while I type this as well. Lovely!
We've been fairly lucky though....I don't mind putting up with some rain when I can stay indoors!

We bought bikes last week and have been cycling to work and so far haven't been caught in the rain. That's good....as long as I keep staying dry on my way to work and home again it can rain as much as it likes while I am cosied up inside!

In other news we have a mouse outbreak last week...never a good thing but something that's pretty common in homes in NZ...especially when the mice want in from all the rain! The bugman was out today though so I am keeping my fingers crossed for no more Mr Mouse....4 in 48 hours was quite enough thank you! And the dog was useless....hiding behind me! I threatened to exchange him for a cat which seemed to sort him out a bit!

That's all for today - short and sweet! How's everyone else?

Ridiculously early has it's benefits

I had to be up at 6am this morning in order to drive to Porirua (near Wellington and about an hour and a half from home) for a payroll training course.
Getting up before the sun is out or any time before 8.30am generally makes me very grumpy indeed but I managed to get through the day.
Being the good student I am I whizzed through the course and finished before 4pm enabling me to stop once or twice on the drive home and be a tourist....

Here's Kapiti Island taken from the State Highway (I promise I pulled over into a lay-by to take this):

and here are the ranges (Tararua I think? Correct me if I'm wrong...the ones that go towards Wellington) looking all lovely and snow-capped:

Not bad for a days work!

Winter

Well winter is well and truly here and it has been pretty chilly lately. We have even had to scrape ice off the car a couple of mornings. And on Saturday it sleeted....enough to make it look like snow (it's practically unheard of to snow in Palmerston North)...and with the sleet came sleetmen....the Palmerston North alternative to snowmen! I was so annoyed I didn't have the camera with me when we saw them dotted about! They were so cute!

And with winter comes horrible, yucky winter jobs like cleaning blocked gutters. I, of course, had the very important roles of holding the ladder, turning the tap on and off for the hose, passing up buckets, hoses etc.
Being outside ready to hold the ladder and pass things up at a moments notice gave me a good excuse to take some winter photos. This was the first clear day in a while. It felt like it'd been raining for years (when really it was only a couple of weeks) which meant that Lake Palliser came back to life...

But it's not all bad...we have at least one sign of the good weather to come...I can't wait for the daff's to flower - they always cheer me up immensely. I remember the daff's giving me a smile after days of feeling sorry for myself when I had the chicken pox last year in August.

And you just can't beat the sky on a crisp, New Zealand winter's day...it may be cold but you get to look up and see this...

So yes, I am looking forward to longer and warmer days but I am trying to make the most of winter while it's here!

3 years....

....wow, on this day (24th June) 3 years ago we boarded a plane headed for New Zealand and we've lived here ever since.
Never did I realise then all that would have happened to us up until now.
It's been an amazing journey and I reckon there are still exciting times ahead.
Three years....man, where did the time go?

Snapshot from the weekend

Phew - we are busy lately but hopefully things will take a little more of a relaxed pace soon.

Graeme was in Auckland last week, we were in New Plymouth at the weekend and I got back from a 2 day trip to Auckland tonight.

Here's a photo to tide you over until I can get on here for a longer post:

It's Mount Taranaki (a.k.a Mount Egmont) taken from New Plymouth...pretty awesome huh?

And in other completely unrelated news I bought the cutest pen ever today...not only is it pink but it is also covered in little doodle giraffes! (Select 'Giraffe' from design to see just how cute it is!)

Back soon (I hope!)

Random photos to give you an update (I'm too tired for lots of words!)

Here's something I made on my week off which is meant for the spare/craft/treadmill/junk room but which is currently on top of the mantle piece making me smile because it's glittery and covered in bling...

There's not much been happening other than work, work, work!

This is what I was doing all weekend:

which was actually lots of fun! And me being me I still managed to spend money as well as 'woman' the stall! Here's the goodies I bought home with me...

...including a delicious reserve red wine for Graeme's birthday and the most yummy handmade belgian chocolates (all gone already of course and yes I did share them!).

It's not all about work though - we did manage to fit this in on Sunday....

And that's all I have for you right now! I'm off to laze in a hot bubble bath and have an early night! And working all weekend will be made up by a 3 day weekend approaching (Queen's Birthday - woohoo!)

A week off in photos

Hmmm, haven't taken as many as I would have liked due to batteries running out on me and bad light but here's a few which help summarise a pretty good week off!

There's been lots of laying about and relaxing:

There's been a bit of walking (but thankfully no running into big stinky ponds due to the wound!)

And of course there's been running around with large sticks and chewing them:

And there's been some cracking weather - it's been up at 18 degrees - in May! Which is the month between Autumn and Winter here. I got a shock yesterday when I got in the car and the temperature was 23! But it soon cooled a little once I was on the move - it's just where the car had been sitting in the sun.

I've also been taking pictures of yellow things the last couple of days. I once read somewhere that yellow is a very insprirational colour and that Roald Dahl wrote his stories on yellow legal pads with pencils (I'm sure it was Roald Dahl but feel free to correct me). Of course - I then went out and bought yellow legal pads and waited for inspiration to strike.

It does every now and again but lately it's been the yellow outside that I find pretty inspiring...

The Dark Lord is currently in Palmerston North (plus a trip to the vets and a week off)

Yep - you heard it first here - Voldemort is in New Zealand...and not only that...he also zapped my dog and left a Harry-esque lighting strike atop his paw.

Poor Rhett - although it seems to be me that took it more badly. I was the one the vet took the time to calm down on Saturday morning while the dog just enjoyed all the treats, cuddles and attention coming his way!

Luckily - the vet didn't think it was serious enough to warrant putting him out and stitching it up - she gave us the option but we went with option b - the much cheaper for us and less stressful for pooch - antibiotics and twice daily cleaning with salt water - ouch! So far he's been a trooper and let's Graeme squirt salt water in his cut while I hand out the treats. Ah yes - he is loving the treats!

So we'll give it a few days and see if it starts to heal. He is going to have the coolest scar ever!

In other news - I have this week off - woo-hoo! (Can't remember if I have already mentioned that?) So there may be one or two posts up this week - we shall see!

I have planned a busy week of (but not confined to):

• sleeping
• watching movies
• baking
• scrapbooking
• taking photos and learning how to take better photos
• decluttering (not fun but it's desperately needed!)
• and basically having some fun, rest and relaxation

Graeme is going to be at work for the most part although he is off Wednesday. If the weather is bad we will probably hire a Nintendo Wii from the video store and have a play. If the weather is good - who knows (it probably would have been a trip to the beach or a river walk but the vet's advised us not to let the dog swim until the wound has closed over).

Right - I am going to go and be wifely and start making dinner before Graeme gets home from work (making sure of course he realises this is not going to become a habit!)

Edit: Forgot to mention - the tooth ache won over and I ended up at the dentist last Thursday. I ended up with my first ever filling...and without an injection - it hurt! But as the dentist said - it was worth putting up with 5 minutes of pain while he drilled etc then have my face frozen for a few hours (from the injection). And I have to go back for a couple more in a couple of weeks....between vets and dentists bills the bank balance is taking a whollop lately!