Got back from Gran Canaria at midnight last night. We've had a great time and it was lovely to see the sun, mind you there was a heatwave there at the weekend and temperatures went over 42, it was hot, hot, hot. We went to Puerto Rico which is nice but don't think we'll be visiting GC again we much prefer Lanzarote where we will be off to in September.

Got up around 10.00 this morning and started the unpacking, just about to go out and put some more washing out before going to the supermarket to get the supplies in.

Whilst we were away ma in law got took back in hospital with yet another bladder infection luckily though she was allowed out the next day.

R and her fiancee have decided to buy a house and have put in an offer for a terraced house near to where we live so we're just waiting to see what happens with that.

Back to work tomorrow, can't say I'm looking forward to it but its just part of life so have to grin and bear it, could be a lot worse.

Hope you are all well.

Hi everyone, well the case is packed and I've been really good cos I'm only taking six pairs of shoes. We leave home at about 6.00 am tomorrow and the flight to Gran Canaria is at 10.35. Now the packing is done I'm getting really excited. We booked the holiday about 7 months ago and its come around so fast. Mind you if I'd have know what was going to happen with the Euro then I would have got my spending money when we booked the holiday. Never mind we won't let it spoil our break.

Popped over to see ma in law in the old folk's home today. There was a lot fewer residents than there has been for a long time. The few that were there were all sat in the land of nod snoozing away while Vera Lynn played in the background. God how I hope I don't end up in one of those places its just like been in the waiting room for you know what. It made me a bit depressed, as it always does, and I've managed to cheer myself up by getting ready for the holiday.

Got a chicken roasting in the oven for a family Sunday dinner and I think I might make an apple crumble to go with it. I like to feed em up before we go away even though they're quite capable of looking after themselves.

Anyway blog mates I'll see you soon and look after yourselves.

Hi ya bloggers, 38 hours to go and we'll be setting off to the airport. I've been cleaning the house today and I've got the ironing to do in the morning before packing our cases for our week in the sun.

Well as I mentioned last time we went out last night with D&R plus another couple who we've not seen for over 20 years. We had a great night together and just seemed to pick up from where we left off. S brought photographs of a great party which we were all at many moons ago and on the pics we were still there all laughing together just like we were last night. It was great to reminisce and catch up on what's been happening in our lives. We've had children and they've all grown up and we had so much to talk about. Honestly though we laughed and laughed all night and I can't remember being like that since we saw them last time.

We've agreed not to lose touch again and are meeting up at the beginning of June and are planning a weekend away for the six of us. Also us girls are thinking of having a girlie get away together.

Life seems to get better and better, alright last week I was worrying about work but what's it matter at the end of the day you just need to earn money so that you can go out and enjoy yourself. At times we all need to get things into perspective and I've certainly done that this week. Sod the job, and roll on the good times!

Hi bloggers, hope you've had a great week. I'm now on holiday and way hay will be boarding the plane on Monday morning heading off to Gran Canaria. Have looked at some weather sites I'm not sure it'll be sun, sun, sun next week but it'll be nice to get away.

I've been worrying this week about my job and just reading Nigel Short's blog it's helped me to get things into perspective. At the moment I've got another 5 months to go on a fixed term contract working with the NHS. Talking to the boss this week it seems that they'd prefer someone to be doing my job full time, I currently do 3 days a week. I feel a bit hurt because during the past couple of months I've really had to prop up our little secretarial team up as one of the team members has had some family problems necessitating her taking unpaid leave which resulted in me being asked to do extra days. I did this and worked really hard to keep things going. However, management have their boxes to tick and the fact that you've worked your ..... off doesn't matter in their bigger picture.

My dilemma is should I sit back and wait to see what happens at the end of September or do I look around for something else. Hubby says as I enjoy my place of work I should sit back and see rather than cutting and running and I agree with this to a certain extent. Even if they do give me the chop I now have 2 years of med secretary experience which is really sought after in the NHS and I'd no doubt be able to get other work with them even if it meant doing it via a temping agency but my problem is coping with the uncertainty.

This is where my blogger friend Nigel comes in. All these doubts are nothing compared to what he's being going through in the past few weeks and if you've got your health does it really matter which office or desk you might be sat at in a few months? Obviously the answer is no of course it doesn't and just writing this blog today its helped to get my internalising of this situation out of my system and I can now get on with getting my case packed.

ps. on the social front we're off out tonight for a meal and a catch up with friends and I should be looking scrumptious as I've got my hair do booked for 2.15 today.

Bye and thanks for listening to my rambles once again

Yes my blog mates only one week and 19 hours to go before our plane takes off heading to the (hopefully) sunny Gran Canaria. One week (hopefully) of relaxation, sun, books, sightseeing and time with my wonderful hubby. Popped to the shops yesterday and got some new undies (we have to have new undies when we go on hols don't we girls?), got some sun tan at Superdrug who're doing a buy one, get one free promotion on their own stuff at the moment. On Friday I'll be having my holiday hairdo and we're going out with D,R and some of their friends for a meal so I'll be one sexy lady.

On Friday me and hubby went to see Son of Rambo at the flicks. It's a great film, really heart warming and very funny at times. A budget British film which in my opinion we need more of to show off our British acting talents. After the film we went and had some tea out before coming back home for hubby to watch Gardener's World and then we switched over to the fabulous Benidorm which if you've not seen you're really missing a good programme.

So how was last night's meal? It was fabulous. The recipe for the spicey tomatoe soup was from a little book bought from Morrisons proceeds of which go to the heart foundation and its a cracking little book. Beef bourginion was absolutely delish and Reb's taken the remainder for her lunch today and texted me to say what a lovely lunch she's had and the banoffee pie was delicious and very, very fattening.

D was absolute rat arsed by the time they went, boy can that bloke drink. He had more than 2 bottles of white wine followed by about 4 cans of Boddingtons. He can really drink like a fish. We had a great night with them although I think hubby finds it a bit difficult trying to keep the conversation going at times as he & D have quite different interests and D's not working at the moment so work is a non starter topic.

Today I watched Something for the Weekend and they did some great food today, really liked the look of the trifle and I think I might be doing that at some point and the meat loaf looked a good one to try too.

After watching that we went to Rother Valley for a walk which was very nice, then we came back and had lunch whilst reading the Sunday paper, bliss.

At the moment I'm waiting for my ma to ring to make arrangements for tomorrow. We're going out for lunch and she'll be filling me in on her first trip away with the over 50's club she goes to. I'm hoping she's had a good time and will want to do this kind of thing again as its good for her to have other people to socialise with apart from us.

We've got a glut of rhubarb on the allotment and we've given quite a bit away. I've frozen some and as we speak I've got some cooking away in the oven which we can have for dessert this week with natural yogurt mmmmm.

My God I bet you get dizzy with me rambling on. I love writing on my blog it helps to get negative thoughts out of my system and its a good way for me to diarise my progress in my fight against depression which I think I'm certainly succeeding with at the moment (fingers crossed as I say that).

Well my friends my hands are getting tired from typing now so I'm off to read yours. See you soon.

Back to three day weeks and yippee that's me done till next Tuesday. Am really looking forward to this weekend. Hubby has also finished today and it'll be nice to spend some time together as the past two weekends we've not seen that much of each other. So what've we got planned?

Well tomorrow ma is going away with the over 55's so I'm going to drop her off in town in the morning. Mat has a dental appt so hubby's taking him to the dentist, then hubby's going to the optician whilst I go and get the food shopping done. After lunch we're planning on going to the pictures and we're thinking of seeing Son of Rambo.

On Saturday night we've got D&R coming over for a meal, hubby's going to pick them up so that they can both have a drink for a change. The menu is spicey tomatoe soup, beef bourginion with new potatoes, buttered carrots and brocolli. Then for dessert I'm making a bonoffee pie. I love doing menu's like this because all the prep is doing before hand apart from cooking the veg which means you can spend lots of time with your friends.

Not sure what we're doing on Sunday but its supposed to be raining so it might be a housework day. Then on Monday me and ma are going out for lunch which will be nice as she'll be able to tell me all about her adventure to London. Its the first time in her life she's been away with people other than family members so it'll be a big step for her but I think she will enjoy it (fingers crossed).

Ten days to Gran Canaria and we're definitely counting them off, only 3 more working days for me next week. Our boss told me that she wants to talk to my two colleagues and I about something, apparently its supposed to be good news but we'll see what happens. Usually when they think something is good we're not so sure.

Have a nice day tomorrow even if you are at work and don't worry you're weekend will be starting soon too.

Hope you've all had a good weekend, I thought I'd update you on mine. As planned we went out last night, met up with N&G and G's family and friends. To be honest most of G's family weren't that sociably forthcoming not at all like G. We ended up losing them as they moved onto the next bar and we were going to catch them up but when we got there we found a queue to get into the pub. Now I might queue for somethings but getting into a pub well NOOOOOO! So we ended up going back to Whetherspoons and at £5.50 for 2 G&T's and 2 pints it certainly has something going for it.

We got kicked out at closing time and then got a taxi upto N&G's local Indian restaurant. Finally got into bed at 2.00 am with a terrible wind problem which hubby wasn't too pleased about. Did'nt wake till about 10.30 this morning and as hubby had decided to come downstairs and watch footie I thought I'd lay in bed and watch Something for the Weekend which is one of my favourite weekend programmes.

Today me and hubby have visited a local garden centre to get some supplies in for our allotment. We then went to Crystal Peaks where hubby got some stuff for the holiday, came home and made bacon and mushrooms on ciabatta, yummmmmm which we sat eating in the conservatory reading the Sunday paper and watching the snow showers.

For Sunday dinner I did roast pork which was very nice finished off with meringues with fruit and icecream.

Next Saturday we've got D&R coming for a meal and I've decided to go Asian with the cooking so I've been doing a bit of surfing for recipes. For starters we're going to have a salad with bhajis, somosas and a homemade cucumber raita, then for the main course I'm making a chicken dhansak (courtesy of an M&S receipe) and a sweet and spicey veg curry along with rice and nan bread. To finish I think we might have a large meringue covered with thick cream and fruit. It should be an interesting meal to cook as I've not made raita or the two curries before and all of them can be prepared beforehand which as any cook will tell you makes life so much simpler.

Right going to log off now and read some more of the paper before Gavin & Stacey. Hope you have a great week.

I'm feeling incredibly lazy today, hubby got up at 7.30 to go to work, its month end and he's got a lot to do so he's working today and then he's going to take next Friday off. I stayed in bed until 9.30. I'd woken up before that but it was thoroughly miserable outside so I thought i'd lay in bed and read my book which at the moment is Sushi for Beginners. I thought it mightn't be all that good but so far I'm enjoying it.

After watching Saturday Kitchen I ventured out to a local shopping centre and bought a cardi and a couple of T shirts from Next in readiness for my holiday (2 weeks on Monday). Got home about 1.00 and made a mushroom omlette for my lunch.

Reb's working this afternoon and now the lads are at the match. Pots are piled high on the sink and I can't get off my backside to do anything.

I didn't go to bums and tums, my workmate was doing something else and I decided that at the age of 44 when I've finished work for the day I don't much feel like exercising myself silly, lazy well yes probably.

Worked 4 days this week. As you know we're still having to put up with the lazy Australian. Then we got someone else in to help us with our filing, after two days she's told the agency that she's not suited to it so back to square one having to teach someone else.

The duck last Sunday was absolutely delicious. Yesterday for dinner I made pork chops with orange which to be honest didn't look that tasty but was absolutely scrumptious. For Sunday dinner this week there'll be the five of us and I've got a leg of pork to cook.

Tonight we're off to town drinking. It's G's brothers 50th birthday and they're going drinking down West Street and we've been invited along. Not sure what it'll be like as we won't know anyone else but as someone once pointed out new people are simply friends that you've not met yet.

On the drinking front since last Sunday I've drunk 5 glasses of wine which is equivalent to one per night so I think I'm doing pretty good really although I expect that statistic might go up a bit tonight but I'm still going to take it steady. Not had an hangover for two weeks and I'm really enjoying waking up feeling refreshed and ready for my days off work even if I do decide to be a lazy cow.

Oh well going to have to get the kitchen tidied so its bye from me.