Catch Up

Thursday - a good day, not sure what we did apart from going to my parents to give my dad his Father's Day Hamper as they were due to go off on hols again. Hamper went down well so I was pleased and am forging ahead with plans to do one for everyone at Christmas. 

My dad showed Charlie how to water all his eleventy million pots whilst they are away. He is being £5 a day for doing this. It's taking him about 30 minutes every night as they are soooo many pots and many are rare/exotic/expensive type plants that need special care or something.

Karate in the evening for Charlie which went well.

Friday - I don't remember much apart from the update to the website finally going live with the new feature, so I was pleased about that.

Saturday - I woke up in immense pain with my right eye being hugely swollen and really hurting again and barely being able to swallow plus aching all over. I was practically sobbing, particularly when I found a lump on my eyeball. I took a multitude of drugs all day and didn't move from the bed as I just felt so rough so watched my Lost Season 1 DVD's whilst my lovely boy bought my constant glasses of water and all my meals.

Sunday - Was much the same really, still felt really awful so remained in bed watching Lost. Felt a little better by the evening and supervised the last 2 minutes of Charlie cooking spag bol sauce from scratch and then hobbled back to bed. Aching limbs were the worst problem.

Monday - Felt much better and so we went off to Oxford for a few hours. Realised after about 2 hours that I wasn't as recovered as I thought though and was exhausted by the time we got home at 4pm. No Karate for Charlie as I couldn't face the thought of leaving the house again. Weigh in this morning and have lost 2 Ibs so very pleased.

Tuesday - Managed some work on the site, mainly uploading new products. Had to spend a few hours reinstalling OS X on my Macbook though. Still it is all running much better now even though it was a complete PITA to redownload all my extras etc. Nowhere near the hassle of doing it all on a Windows machine though, loved the way it was so easy to just instantly have all my email and mail settings and bookmarks back to the way they should be in a about two clicks of the mouse. Finally also got around to setting up Time Machine.

Got Charlie to browse the Lego shop website and write down the catalogue numbers of Star Wars lego he would like for Christmas. Always have to get him motivated early on this as he is not a particularly toy orientated child and never asks for anything and has to be pushed. Its nice to see him enjoying a toy again though after he bought a large lego set with his birthday money back in January.

Wednesday - Charlie did his normals etc whilst I worked for a bit and then we dashed out to Tesco for new clothes airer, summer duvet for me, lined paper for Charlie's project, some page protectors, and a few groceries. Charlie spent some of his money of a small Star Wars lego set too.

Met up with B and walked down to the bus top with her to collect Anna and then we went to the pub for a drink and a chat and the children also had crisps. In the winter we had got into the habit of doing this most weeks and having hot chocolate as the pub is also a hotel. Bit warm for hot choc today so pints of cold soft drinks were consumed instead. Anna walked back with us whilst A went to the village shop and they played for a bit before my brother called as his GF had her 12 week scan today so he was calling to tell Charlie that she was pregnant as they hadn't want him to know until this scan. Charlie very pleased with the news but then told my mum off for lying to him about it and how upset he was that he was the last in our family to find out.

Had a pleasant conversation with my brother about various things and was able to reassure him about the various tests the nurse was trying to push them into having, about due dates and the size of the baby. Discussed the trip that we will make to Oz next year too. His GF is Australian and they are planning to move there in October. Baby is due in January so will share its birth month with Charlie. Charlie very much looking forward to having his first cousin and future baby cuddles.

Quite Frankly

Good day today. Well apart from some jerk telling me I couldn't park on the road outside the unit because he had a lorry coming with pallets. I was on the opposite side of the road to his unit and about 50m in front of the boundary. I didn't move and his lorry didn't turn up in the time I was there. Some people are just unreal. Moaning to me because other people park in front of their storage unit when I was nowhere near it. There was no way on earth I was going to move when really his beef was with the business that has a garage right next to his storage unit but rather than put their massive van in their garage they park outside it. But he can't say anything, and rightly so, because they have as much right to park there as I do where I did.

Ugh, I hate parking politics and I hate being told I can't do something with no good reason.

Anyway, spent an hour and a half at the unit sorting some stuff out so that is my visit for the week over and done with. Placed some orders and made some progress on a new minor feature on AT. Minor in terms of its not very exciting, but major as it is proven to increase conversion by up to 50%

Charlie finished his normals when we got back and then after lunch we settled down to watch our latest DVD rental which is the BBC adaption of Anne Frank. We are four parts in with one part to go tomorrow and its pretty good. Somehow I managed to grow up and never read it so we are on the look for a completely unabridged and unchanged version for both of us to read. We both were confused by the fact that the mother declared they were German, so want to try and find out why they were in Amsterdam and not living in Germany.

Today was, thankfully, a bit calmer. I still slept in later than I had planned due to not sleeping well yet again. Consequently this meant I didn't really get into my prime until lunchtime.

But anyway, started the day with writing a letter to the insurance broker letting him know I wouldn't be renewing the business policy at the end of the month and then sending Charlie round to my parents for a stamp. Charlie had finished all his normals by 9.30am, so was in a cheery mood. He read a lot and watched more Star Wars DVD's and did his usual sterling job of making lunch. He also did some more of the Klutz drawing thingy - it was mugs and pitchers today and he came up with some very inventive stuff.

In an effort to be more organised I spent a few hours on my household manual so at least now all the important phone numbers are in one place and neatly typed up to boot. I have been meaning to do this for ages for several reasons, one being that if anything were to happen to me, Charlie doesn't yet know my parents or neighbours phone number by heart. This way he can just grab the binder and it's all there for him. He can also look in there for a reminder of when birthdays/anniversaries are coming up too as he get SO upset when he forgets to make cards despite my constant reminders. I am beginning to think he really is a "visual" person in some ways, not all though as he can be told something interesting and remember it for years afterwards.

Nice afternoon walk with the dogs and Beth came along too. She had kindly mowed our front lawn this morning when she was doing hers too.

I am back on my diet in a very strict way after I have plateau'd hideously since coming back from Florida. I am planning to make it to Brno this year for more IVF (hopefully no later than October) and at least want to loose another stone to get me back to pre-Florida weight and hopefully loose some extra lbs too.

Mental Monday

Some very complicated and rather terrifying mental maths went on at a very ungodly hour this morning. I'm surprised the shock didn't kill me. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry about the fact that I don't know if his conclusion was anywhere near correct due to my own seriously appalling maths ability. It wasn't maths for maths sake though, which made me smile, he was trying to work out something to do with either boats or some physics type thing. Why does he always pick the middle of the night to do these amazingly educational things when I don't have a hope in hell of remembering what on earth it was?!

I'm still sleeping really badly so was rather bad tempered this morning, I don't know if its the heat or stress but I am constantly waking up several times each night.

I am still disturbed by my dad walking past my bedroom window every morning and shouting good morning whilst I lie in bed! I surprised him this morning as I heard him coming and shouted abuse about Rolly (his new rescue dog)!

By the time I dragged myself out of bed Charlie had finished all his normals and was re-reading a book from Sonlight Core 2 - A Little Princess I think it was. It actually looks quite good and he suggested I should read it, so I might.

News came in from the developer that they had managed to make the change I wanted to Anara Toys, so that cheered me up, although it can't go live yet as they need the FTP details, which are at the warehouse.

Also had a long conversation with the other developer that will be writing my stock control & business admin system, it looks like it will be tricky but also probably not as expensive as I had imagined which is always a good thing.

I've also had a long think about the business direction and have made some decisions there. When the redesign is done and the site is moved to new software I will be making a fairly major change to the direction of Anara Toys. Just Dolls is perfectly placed and doesn't need anything doing direction wise apart from bringing in all the rest of the planned suppliers, although it will also be getting moved to a new cart and getting a redesign. The third and fourth websites are coming along nicely in the planning stage and I have sourced some really exciting new suppliers for those, ones which very few other companies have here.

I do quite hate Mondays. Always seem to be rushing around to make sure dinner is cooked and we have finished eating by 5pm as its Karate day. Ditto Thursdays.

We walked the dogs for what felt like ages this afternoon and it was so hot. We were walking at a fairly fast pace though and all four of us collapsed when we got back. Charlie watched a Star Wars DVD on his laptop, then we had dinner and then off to Karate. I went to Tesco to do the shopping and then picked him up. I was really proud to see him perform a series of moves perfectly and receive praise from the Sensei. Impressive considering he has only been going for a few weeks and other children who are graded and have belts were being corrected.

Charlie has an interesting grace about him which is unusual for a boy I think. Sometimes some of the moves look incredibly graceful and almost ballet like when he does them. I can see why he is so good at Karate with this natural grace. The Sensei have commented on it and said he is doing really well. He loves it so that is good. I think there is a grading due soon so it will be interesting if they think he is good enough to try for his first belt. I suspect that they won't let him as he has only had a few lessons - maybe 8 now. He is absolutely fine with their position on only letting people try for a grading if they truly believe they will pass. Charlie does not like to fail, so this is good!

Sunday Sunday

Today started far too early again but lovely Charlie did bring me breakfast in bed at 7.30 so I managed to doze for a few more hours before starting to get lunch ready and tidy up a bit. Luckily we had done most of the tidying last night so Charlie just did the hoovering whilst I decluttered my wardrobe and managed to finally pack away some maternity clothes and babygros that were hanging around on the shelf in there. New boxes from Ikea were the perfect fit and wardrobe now looking like something in a de-cluttering book. Martha Stewart would be proud.

Mum and Dad arrived at 1pm and Mum helped me divert disaster with the veg - the steamer stopped working and the roast chicken and potatoes were slowly getting cold waiting! Lovely lunch and chatting although Charlie a pain for some reason.

Told M&D I am off to Scotland if these ludicrous proposals go through. Unbelievably they didn't think I was mad but Mum believes that the government will never have the balls to put it through and thinks they are just desperately scrabbling around in an effort to make themselves look better after Baby P etc. I am not so convinced. Being a lesbian, home educating single parent whose child never has any contact anymore with his father does not put me in a good position. Too many minorities for one small family, I can already see the persecution.

Thankfully right now I am still off the radar completely (a huge plus of having withdrawn him from a private school & then moved 100 odd miles away almost 2 years later) My GP never, ever remembers he is HE'd so I don't think it's in his notes either. He was way too old to be on the health visitors radar when we moved here, and in fact never see the HV where we lived before either.

I don't have anything to hide but I have seen first hand in my old job, the every day assumptions and mistakes that Social Workers constantly make in Care cases and I refuse to let there even be at 1% chance of that happening to us. People asking them for help and their children taken away, childrens comments misinterpreted completely, innocent parents prosecuted and loosing everything. Even parents whom have made mistakes in the past, desperately working hard to change and that still not being good enough.

I'm concerned enough to have started to make plans for a potential move, and if it becomes necessary I will do it. I've never, ever wanted to live up North, but I have to protect our family life. It would be so easy for Charlie to be ordered into school as he is so behind the NC guidelines for maths. Of course the fact is way ahead in every other subject would be ignored. I reckon he would last two weeks before doing something to get himself expelled. I know that he would do everything in his power to get himself expelled. He isn't stupid, and in fact is clever enough to make a plan in advance and follow it through. Hell, he did it at age 6. Planning each night how he could sneak out of the classroom the next day without being seen and going missing in the school grounds for hours at a time, and he did it. Not once did he get caught actually sneaking out! God only knows what he would do at 11 to avoid school.

That, and the whole thing truly frightens me, probably in a way that is hard for many people, even other HE'ers to understand. Being a lesbian is already considered weird, unnatural and a million other negative things, being a lesbian with a child even more so. So many prejudices out there from officials, so many obstacles in our way to make families, legal, medical and social. It's already standard practice to make examples out of us, to punish us in ways that don't happen to straight women.

Perhaps the most frightening thing of all is that this may prompt his father to suddenly decide to seek residency and that is something I would move to Australia to avoid.

Saturday

Up too early for my liking on a Saturday but my ten to 9 I had make it back to bed as Charlie was watching his latest DVD delivery from Lovefilm. Dozed on and off for an hour or so and then jumped in shower and got dressed.

Off to Tesco and we had lunch and got some bits and pieces. Back home and dogs refused to be walked. As well as not liking the rain, they do not like it when it is this hot either :)

Charlie did some more stamp stuff, played on his laptop and other stuff and I retreated upstairs to laze about on my bed reading magazines. My dad bought round some books for me to read, always welcome and went through some of Charlie's stamps with him too. We couldn't find the triangular one to show him which was a shame as it's nicely different.

Charlie made Millies style choc chip cookies whilst I did some more research on the new shopping cart and some other work related stuff and he played outside for ages. That trampoline really is the best thing I have ever bought.

Dinner was Charlie's home made fish pie ala Jamie O and then I watched Nights in Rodanthe. Beautiful scenery, good film but so sad, I cried.

Ikea, stamps and crates

So Tuesday was Ikea day and I came away a very happy lady. Didn't manage to get any curtains for my bedroom as they now make them 10 million cm long and expect you to hem them yourself to the required length - hem them? Are they mad?! However, I did manage to get the lovely white storage boxes I wanted so overall was very happy.

I can't remember what we did on Wednesday but I do know Charlie didn't do his normals, or anything much for that matter.

Thursday we went to Oxford with my mum. I still can't get over how many people are constantly at the shops and not at work. It was easily as bad as a normal Saturday and apart from a couple of groups of Brazilian school kids, they weren't many tourists.

Yesterday was just work and boring stuff. Finally managed to get the picking/packing software to do everything it actually needs to do which will save L SO much time. Also got given a CV of someone whom would like to apply for the part timer position so that is a relief as the dregs of society have been the only ones to apply so far. Would you give a job to someone who wrote "ere u go" in an email applying for a job? That was ALL they wrote too!

Finally gave in and went to the pet shop to get a crate for overnight use. Dogs taken to it well and no accidents this morning thank god, so all worked like I knew it would.

The next few weeks are going to be a bit manic with interviewing and working intensely with a developer to map out the new stock control & business admin system web app. It's going to be a huge undertaking but hopefully when it is all set up it will save hours and hours of work each week and mean that everything is now automated.

Charlie has been manically doing stuff with his stamps. I am sick to the teeth of hearing about them already - really not that interesting to me!

Boring Monday

Yesterday was fairly boring. Had planned to go to Ikea in Milton Keynes but decided it wasn't worth the rush to be back in time to get dinner done before taking Charlie to Karate so went into the warehouse instead after lunch and planned to go to Ikea on Tuesday instead.

Did various bits and pieces at the warehouse, the first of 15 or so new brands ordered at Spring Fair has arrived now so I played with the toys for a bit and put them all back in the boxes. We ran out of shelving ten minutes after we moved into the new warehouse even though I had bought/acquired 20 new racks!

Kicked my mums old PC as it still won't work, it's not even a year old yet and I am desperate to have a separate PC in my office at the warehouse so I can actually do some work when I'm there rather than having to wait for L to finish with the other PC. Bah!

Went home via Staples where I picked up some new folders, new paper trimmer & hole punch. Messed about with the dogs whilst Charlie finished his work and made a rather lovely curry for dinner, even if I do say so myself.

Took Charlie to Karate and went to Morrisons and had cake - yum. Charlie had another good lesson, he is really enjoying Karate, just needs his Gi now. Watched The Apprentice final online and found myself disagreeing with SAS. Yasmina is excellent and I am glad she won but no-one has yet matched the awesome selling power of the Badger!

Reorganised all the household manuals into the new folders I bought at Staples and then crawled into bed at 2am.

Sunday Sunday

I woke really early on Sunday and listened to the unbelievable amount of rain coming down. Part of the back garden was actually a pond, so much water sitting there that you couldn't see the grass! The dogs did not want to go out and had to be physically put outside to relieve themselves. Poor sods just stood there and shivered! Westies and rain do not go together it would seem.

Luckily by 9.00am the rain had stopped so we turfed them out again whilst we had a late breakfast and then we went into town. I bought a colour printer/all-in-one from Tesco and some more bits for my dad's Fathers Day hamper and a book each for my mum and dad for their Christmas hampers and we got some dog toys and a box for Charlie's stamp stuff in InStore.

We came home and did more DVD watching and Charlie also went on his computer for a bit and read some of his sailing magazines.

I tidied my office which was drowning in paperwork and then did a few minutes of accounts work and began to seriously evaluate a new stock control system and a couple of new shopping carts.

Had fantastic gourmet sausages for dinner which we got at the Blenheim Palace Arts, Crafts & Summer Tastes show and then more DVD watching and bed.

Plodding along happily

Charlie was too exhausted to make it to Karate on Thursday night so we watched a film together instead and laughed at Megan's adorable Yoda ears.

Yesterday we had decided not go to Blenheim Palace and instead we went into town to open Charlie a bank account at Barclays, partly so it is easy for me to transfer instantly available funds to him and partly so he can have an ATM card (at 11!!) which means I don't have to sign withdrawal slips and he isn't restricted to opening hours at banks/building societies to gain access to his money.

Before we left, we counted up his money and filled out his cash book that he bought a while ago now, ready to start to keep a detailed account of what he has and what he spends. He has been increasingly more interested in all the spreadsheets and spending book that I keep all details in. Mine are fairly complex, with different sections for all types of different spending, groceries, meals out, repeat purchases, dogs, etc etc and I explained that at the moment he doesn't need something like that, but when he is older and has a home of his own then it's a good idea so you can keep a tight grip on your budget.

Bank account duly opened and his £8.27 worth of coins paid in, I then handed over the £10 that I owed him and we went off to the Farmers Market where he bought some organic brie. Had lunch and then I found a cookshop which I had never noticed before and managed to spend a not so small amount of money on things I needed which included a jam jar which will eventually contain a Christmas present. I like to be prepared early.

Also found a deli and Charlie got some olives in there and then we went to WH Smiths to try and find some stamp hinges. A disappointed little boy as they had none and he was beating himself up for forgetting to buy them in London in the stamp shop on Wednesday.

Found some bits in various shops for the start of my mum's Christmas hamper, mainly travel type things for all their various holidays.

Popped into Thorntons to buy some bits for my dad's Fathers Day hamper and then to Clintons to find a gift box to act as the hamper and some tissue paper. Charlie got me a little selection of chocolates from Thorntons although he was nearly not allowed to choose a Peach Melba choc as it had alcohol in. The girl serving thought I was too young to be his mum and believed him to be alone in the shop :)

Home and we unpacked everything and I started to assemble my dad's hamper and found some cellophane and ribbon on ebay so ordered some of that too.

Had dinner - Charlie made Jamie Olivers fish pie, then Anna from next door came round and we all walked the dogs.

I did some more knitting - my mum's scarf for Christmas, whilst watching tv and then collapsed into bed.

Time to start anew

Our almost four week Florida holiday in January led to me making a lot of big decisions concerned with turning our family life around and trying to make everything better. Six months on from that and I have managed to complete the first 5 major changes on my list, which were all business related and included hiring and firing staff, renting a warehouse and drastically reducing my working hours.

All of the five changes have made a dramatic difference to our quality of life and have opened the door to allowing the non-business changes to start now.

This week, rather neatly for me, started on the 1st of a month and I have taken it as holiday from work, meaning that all I have done is 15 minutes of banking and accounts each morning. Charlie and I planned a so-called "staycation" and have been/are, doing/going somewhere every day. Now that we have two dogs, this has taken some planning but has all so far worked out well. This week is the start of spending more time together too which has been desperately needed.

On Monday we left the house at 8.30am to make it to Bicester Avenue in time for opening at 9am. First stop was Hobbycraft so that I could buy some wool and needles (I am making some Christmas presents this year) and some craft glue and silver & gold gel pens. Charlie was looking for a particular craft kit but couldn't find what he wanted, so we will have to try John Lewis in Milton Keynes next I think. Next stop was Lakeland as I needed an 8" springform pan to make cheesecake, an oil mister so I can stop using chemical ridden Fry Light, and Charlie bought some Kendal Mint cake. Off to the huge garden centre where we perused but didn't buy anything and then onto Bicester Village Designer Outlet for some lunch and a small spot of browsing - didn't see anything I liked though, most disappointing!

Back home and took the dogs for a long walk and then it was time to get ready for Karate. Whilst Charlie was there I went to Tesco and bought a few groceries we needed, although I am not cooking at all this week due to us being on "holiday", we are eating out of the freezer and enjoying all the homemade meals I froze two weeks ago. Cottage pie tonight which was lovely.

On Tuesday we walked the dogs in the morning and then Charlie did some organising/cataloging of his stamps. After lunch we went to Wigginton Wildfowl & Wildlife Sanctuary and spent a very pleasant hour or so there, enhanced by a nice ice cream. At the end (which is always Charlie's favourite part) he got to cuddle a chick, a gosling and a baby gerbil. The chick was adorable and falling asleep as Charlie stroked it and the gosling was desperate to fly with its tiny little wings. We watched and enjoyed Bedtime Stories when we got back.

Yesterday/Wednesday, we went to London. I hired a dog sitter for the day so we could come back as late as we wanted and that was great. Up early at 6.45am and Charlie leapt in the shower and then dealt with the dogs before we left for the station at 8.30am. First stop was the Stanley Gibbons shop on The Strand as Charlie had been desperate to go here for a while. We went first so I could get it over and done with. We walked down The Strand and wandered around Covent Garden for a bit and then took the tube over to the British Museum. We ate our picnic lunch outside as the picnic room is only for schools during term time (ridiculous and I am going to complain!) It was Charlie's first time there and both of us were really quite disappointed. The highlight for both of us was seeing the Rosetta Stone and I was really excited to see the Cyprus room but it was incredibly, well, crap frankly.

I hadn't slept well the night before and was incredibly tired after getting up at 6.45 instead of my usual 7.30am so we retreated across the road to Starbucks and had smoothies and shared a cinammon swirl. I was actually falling asleep waiting for Charlie to finish his frapachino.

We went into a coin and notes shop a few doors down which was also really quite interesting and then walked back down Great Russell Street and then all the way down Charring Cross Road, stopping in a few bookshops here and there and then we went into the Chinese supermarkets in Chinatown as we didn't have time to do that last year. At 3.45 we decided to go into the Trocadero as Charlie need the bathroom and on the spur of the moment decided to watch Night at the Museum 2 in the cinema there. We enjoyed it, not as good as the original but still funny, particularly the monkeys.

Back to Chinatown for a great meal in our favourite Chinese restaurant there and we were home just after 9pm.

Today I had a lie-in as I was exhausted - I think I am getting old now. We had decided on a so-called "slob" day, so this morning Charlie has watched a Spongebob film and is now watching Season 2 of The Simpsons - I do adore Lovefilm! Before that he was putting his stamps into his new stock book he bought at Stanley Gibbons yesterday, apparently both the dogs are scared of the tweezers!

Charlie has Karate again tonight and tomorrow I think we are going to Blenheim Palace if we think we can get there and back and see it all in 4 hours. Obviously it's only a 15/20 minute drive but it's a big place and the grounds are huge!

What goes around comes around

Busy days mean that weeks merge into each other, apart from a possible Canal Day visit on Sunday I am determined to just relax this weekend before we go off on holiday on Monday.

Todays parcels were back up to normal levels and Deb did a sterling job as two piles of parcels nearly reached the ceiling when on the table. The postmans face at four towers of parcels and five sacks was very funny today. I hope to reduce his workload somewhat by sending some parcels via courier account on a daily basis. Now I have chosen my courier having had all the quotes in, I just need to do the maths which will tell me where the weight cut off point to send by courier is most cost effective - I could be some time with my non existant maths skills :)

The new website is being designed this week and next so that is all very exciting. I ordered some new stock for both websites today as well. I will be launching the new site before the design is applied as the template is fine and two testers checked out the payment processors and check out for me to today and all was ok there.

Some time ago Charlie finished the Galore Park sample chapter work for History and his maths too. New maths books on their way but am undecided about which way to go with History etc. Did buy a fab new timestables book in Waterstones in Oxford on Saturday afternoon and on the train home we spent the 20 minute journey doing the prime and factor number pages out loud. I love Andrew Bodie's workbooks, Charlie has the handwriting one and he likes that too as he demanded to learn cursive writing the other week so I duly purchased one of these.

He started swimming lessons last week after spending two years on the waiting list and the first lesson looked very promising, it was plainly obviously to see clear progress made during the lesson which was a relief as he usually really struggles in those situations of lots of children around him and all the instructors yelling at each group. But he seemed to manage fine. I will keep a close eye though.

We still haven't decided what, if anything to do to replace Scouts. Going out in the evenings to take him somewhere is just not that appealing to me as I am so exhausted by the end of the day that by the time I stop working and have eaten dinner all I want to do is collapse on the sofa. His 6.30 swimming lessons are a complete pain for that reason. We do have to leave here at 6pm though as otherwise we would never get a parking space which is crazy for a ten minute journey, but at least if we eat at 5 on the dot and then by the time we've cleared away and done a few chores I am not so tempted to go into the sitting room!

Definitely going to look into horse riding for him again as he has really missed it since moving here and was showing such promise and enjoyment at his old stables that it would be a shame to give it up.

I booked our holiday for next week today and he is now very,very excited. I am just looking forward to not packing parcels at all and sleeping. A lot.

Am feeling am bit bleugh today so this will be brief. Charlie jumped out of bed at 7 this morning and I dragged myself out at about 7.20 following another very disturbed night of not much sleep.

He did maths,timestables,GP History, science, english, DWN and verbal and non-verbal reasoning and had it all finished by 10am which was impressive. He was thrilled to get the rest of his day as free time. He listened to his iPod most of the day, mainly Abba I believe but some other stuff too and D saw him dancing around the room a few times when she was getting stock/boxes down :)

I am thanking my lucky stars for having found someone so competent. I say that now, perhaps I shouldn't as it could be a curse! Anyway she definitely feels up to being left alone on Wednesday to do it all so that is good news as I can get to the Autumn Fair. Will print the orders off for her before I leave and do any awkward orders on Tuesday night/very early Weds morning so it should be simple enough for her.

I was in heaven in the supermarket today as last night I downloaded a lists application for my iPhone and was able to do my shopping list on there last night and today. Walking round the supermarket and just touching the screen to tick each item off was soooooooo much easier than paper and pen. Everyone should have an iphone just for this application, I love it. Am also looking forward to using the iPhone as a remote for my iTunes.

Ex-husband managed to have me in tears over the whole maintenance stuff today, which is impressive considering we didn't even talk.

Anna came round for Charlie after school today and they spent a very happy few hours being together. I sorted out B&D's heating controls for them and B and I made plans for an MK shopping trip minus children and also plans for all of us to eat at the fantabulous Indian in the next village.

Very much looking forward to not doing any work at all this weekend. Given the lack of customers this month and dire lack of customers tonight, I think I will manage it. Trying desperately not to think of the £4.4k worth of bills that have to paid this month!

Today went as the rest of the week has really, I still feel like I am battling against a tide of back logged jobs but actually I'm not really anymore. I am almost completely caught up on all the website stuff that needed doing, the filing and accounts are all up to date too. I think it is the number of back orders I have waiting that is the real problem. I have been waiting since July for one of my suppliers to send out the back ordered stock to me and about 80% of the customers are waiting for the same toy from this supplier. Very frustrating! I am still not convinced that allowing customers to buy out of stock stuff is the way to go.

After moving the rooms around a bit in order to enable packing,weighing and sacking to be done downstairs, the house is now nearly all sorted and those jobs caught up on. Still need curtains for my room and to get the pro's in to clean the hall and stairs carpet and paint the walls,skirting and handrail going up the stairs too. Charlie's room looks so much better with his new desk in there. I will get him the matching wardrobe soon so I can finally throw out his temporary one. Must also get someone to put up some small shelves for all his ornaments etc as they are taking over all the surfaces in his room.

Charlie did his usual maths, verbal reasoning, non verbal reasoning, times table, english, science and GP History today and once I reminded him he also did DWN. He says that he prefers the SL history as it's more informative and there is more reading so it might be that we use both once I have bought the next core.

He cooked dinner tonight, only a simple pasta with homemade cheese and tomatoe sauce but he did it all himself and got it all served up, cleared away and loaded dishwasher. We listened to a WDW podcast during dinner and are listening to the next one now, nice not to have the tv on sometimes. He also hoovered the entire house minus the stairs just now and did a great job.

I'm having a slight panic as maintenance is now 8 days late causing one direct debit to bounce, leaving rent and council tax unpaid and my bank account overdrawn when there is no overdraft facility on the account. I could swing for my ex husband sometimes. If the payment doesn't arrive tomorrow I will be forced to take some cash out of the business account so we can go food shopping. For a start I shouldn't have to do that, I am lucky that I can, but it's not the point. After 16 months now of the payment being late all the time I am getting to the end of my tether and am going to have do something now i.e go to Court. It astounds me that an intelligent grown man can blatantly flout a Court Order all the time. I am sick to death of getting the payment the month after its due! Grrrrr.

Wednesday

I couldn't think of an apt word for today so it's just Wednesday. Managed a slight lie in this morning which was very welcome. Usual rushing around printing off orders and putting away the rest of the stock from yesterday, plus sorting a few customer issues. I have had an unusually high amount of chargebacks over the last few weeks so had to supply some evidence for those.

Got Charlie started with some verbal and non verbal reasoning and D arrived and made quick and excellent work of doing parcels and weighing and sacking them ready for RM. Despite today only being the second time she has had to pick the stock herself she managed it all without any assistance except for one thing. I am considering leaving her in charge on Monday so I can go to the trade fair then rather than Sunday. She is back in on Friday so will mull it over with her then.

I am enjoying have my iPhone a lot as it is very handy not having to be at the computer ALL the time to check orders and Amazon/eBay issues. Forwarding the mails to a brand new gmail account seems to have completely removed the Spam issues I had with the Blackberry.

After lunch Charlie finished off the rest of his work, English, maths, science and more Galore Park history. Must buy the text books soon actually. He was desperate to see Anna this afternoon but I knew she would come round only if she had recovered from her first day at a British school and didn't have too much homework, so it looks like she had plenty today as she didn't come round. He is really missing her, very sweet. They played a Nancy Drew pc game yesterday which they both enjoyed.

I have decided (I think) we are definitely going to go to Center Parcs this month if work allows it as the cost of hiring a car big enough to take everything we need for Devon for 7 nights, plus all the petrol would be too big. A nice four night break at CP at least means I won't be in the house for 5 days whilst the parcels are being done. Charlie is desperate to try kayaking and some other activity that I can't remember so it seems CP wins out. I will be in the Spa!

Trying Tuesday

Charlie has been trying today, very,very,very trying, really out of character obnoxiously trying. No idea why but at least Tuesday is over now as he is in bed fast asleep.

This morning was taken up with parcels and dealing with obnoxious behaviour. Before it all kicked off Charlie did do some verbal reasoning but not much. He has a lot of catching up to do tomorrow!

After lunch he spent the afternoon at Anna's after she called round for him and finished off some essential work on Anara Toys and some on the new web site too which was a bit overdue. I have done some culling of product lines recently and once some other bits and pieces have sold off I won't be restocking those either. Once that is acheived the product lines will be nicely streamlined into mainly fast moving toys/dolls with the odd one or two slower moving lines. Turning over stock so quickly that needing to reorder several suppliers lines at least once a week if not twices feels very weird and reminds me of the first Christmas I did!

I went to retrieve Charlie from next door and stayed and chatted to Anna's mum for a while too, tried to sort out her net access for her pc but they only have an ethernet connection for it at the moment so directed her to the BT site to purchase a wireless adapter to go with their home hub. Anna has the laptop which is already wireless so she was happy anyway.

Charlie did dinner and tidied and cleaned kitchen and then was off to bed.

I am determined not to do any work tonight now. I've unpacked and checked off a big delivery and added the stock to the website and Amazon and placed a couple of orders and now that's it for a change.

Manic Monday

Another day, another pile of parcels but at least with help today. I think I managed to get away with only packing about 6 and D did the other 30. Even with her doing just over 3 hours today we only just managed to get them all done, weighed and sacked though in time for the postman.

Received a couple more courier quotes today, need to wait for the rest to arrive before making final decisions but that should be a big help if we make the switch for at least some of the parcels.

Charlie went next door this morning and I dragged him back at lunch but he also very helpfully cleaned my ensuite for me today. After the postman had been A & B came round for coffee and the kids went upstairs and played on the PS3 and B and I gossiped which was lovely. Then after dinner A came round whilst her mum had a mini driving lesson around the business park as she needs practice before taking her UK license test. Having to drive a manual is a big shock to her as it is all to all Americans I guess.

My iphone finally arrived today. Totally.In.Love and that is all I have to say on the subject!

Tomorrow Charlie will be spending most of the day with A again before she starts school on Wednesday so no work for him tomorrow again but back to it on Wednesday as we had got into a good "routine" with no fuss which is always excellent.

Mamma Mia!

Have been so busy with everything, well mainly business stuff that blogging really has gone to pot. Now that I finally have an employee of my very own though I am determined to start attempting to make some time for this blog. After all, with the speed that my 4.5 months-away-from-turning-11-year old is growing up, I need to make more effort.

And not just more effort to blog, but to actually spend time with him that isn't just a few hours on a Saturday and Sunday or a snatched hour at 2 or 3am when I finally crawl into bed and he is sometimes woken up. As lovely as that time is, it isn't enough and it isn't fair. As well as the usual obstacles faced by single parents the businesses add many more and there certainly isn't anyone else to cook,clean, HE, shop etc!

My lovely employee (hmmm don't like using that word) only started last week but as far as I can see she is going to be amazing. Towards the end of September I hope to be able to take my planned week off to go away and so she will be left in charge for a week. If all goes well then once October arrives I will be able to leave her twice a week at least and actually go out with Charlie during the week! It will be a luxury I haven't had for 14 months since B left. I am very much looking forward to it and I think Charlie will benefit hugely from actually having some time with me.

My new website is very close to being ready for launch although it is being redesigned in October as well.

I am also getting a cleaner or cleaning agency soon, just need to finish having the interviews/visits and choose someone and we're all set.

HE wise Charlie has powered through SL core 2 and finished it a week ago so at the moment he is doing a load of workbooks we have hanging around, normally science, english,spelling,non verbal reasoning, verbal reasoning, times tables, maths, DWN and some history questions from Galore Park every day.

Having got rid of his very old pc, pc work station and desk last weekend we have now taken delivered of an aptly named Charlie desk and which B kindly assembled this weekend. I had bought him a laptop to replace his pc but its no good so is being sent back. Seeing as I now have a rather gorgeous Mac Book and will soon be getting a MAC desktop I am considering getting him a Mac laptop too and ridding the house of evil Windows once and for all. I will have to install Bootcamp or Parallel though to enable me to print out my orders, but as long as that works ok I will be ecstatic to say goodbye to Windows for good. With the arrival of my iPhone tomorrow this will be a true Mac house.

We had a fantastic time in London during our yearly June weekend there. As usual we did a lot, including going out to see the new Terminal 5, Harrods, Covent Garden, Chinatown, Soho, Picadilly, Trafalfar Square, Leicester Square, West End Live festival, saw Grease at the theatre, walked all the way from Green Park down to Buckingham Palace through St James Park over to Westminster and then all the way along South Bank and on to St Pauls, in one go, in the blazing heat. It was lovely though but exhausting.

I spent the whole of bank holiday weekend working in way or another from two trips to the tip to clearing out the stock room and rearranging the house so it works better for having someone in the house working. Charlie was a star as always and helped hump stock all over the house and out to the garage. Finished the last of the reogranising of the garge stock room yesterday.

We had a lovely visit from the Puddles since I last blogged and enjoyed a picnic in the park and Prince Caspian.

I made the difficult decision last week to stop allowing him to attend Scouts. I reached the end of my tether with his behaviour after he had been and the 3 week enforced absence due to Scout Camp, PL holiday and one week of me just saying no, really proved that it is 100% not him! He was fine during those 3 weeks, went back in the fourth week and the behaviour the next morning was just horrible. Ugh.

He attended his Stagecoach summer workshop at the start of August and loved it but was totally exhausted after dancing, singing and acting from 10-4 every day. The show at the end of the week was fantastic, amazing what can be achieved in that time frame considering the children are aged from 6-17. Everyone had two parts and it was just such good fun. Charlie got one of the biggest laughs for his delivery of his last line as Cliff Barnes in the Dallas segment which he was thrilled with.

He loves Stagecoach so much, it is really good for him, only two more weeks until the next term starts.

Charlie has also made a lovely new friend. A few weeks ago new neighbours moved in next door, a family from America and they have a daughter who is 11. After playing together all day on Friday they are now best friends. She is a lovely little girl and parents really nice too. The mum is coming round this week for coffee. We all went for a walk around the Lakes on Friday afternoon to feed the ducks, it was a welcome respite from work.

Tomorrow is my helper's third day and I am letting Charlie off work for most of the day as Anna is starting school on Wednesday so they need more time to hang out. She has been harassing her parents to let her be home schooled though all of a sudden - rofl!

I've let blogging slide a bit again, really must make more effort!

We eventually made it over to Merry's two days later and spent a lovely day there, leaving early only so I could make it to SW. I was given the grand tour of Merry's new premises - so jealous about having real space for stock and packing!! I found myself helping to unpack a stock delivery and packing orders, always such a pleasure for me to have a busmans holiday!

Had a frantic almost three weeks because as well as running my own two businesses my parents kindly went off to India leaving me to run their business again. I hate the stress and loss of time but as they've now sold their business and officially retired full time (having semi-retired years ago at the ages of 46 & 49 ish) I won't ever have to do it again - yay!

Charlie has been enjoying scouts lots, hasn't made a fuss about my decision to not let him go to Scout camp this year, is still doing well with Singapore Math, loving his SL, EC & DWN. He's been designing a gear box, drawing, more map making, and is currently obsessed with celtic round houses.

Suffering from retail death atm on both sites which isn't good especially after the start of the month was so promising. Pah. Trying not to panic as have huge stock bills to pay this month with this being the second biggest buying quarter in a year.

The third website is getting a bit closer to being launched but is currently held up by cash flow and still needing to source a supplier for 3 key lines.

Haven't yet managed to make it to the doctors about lack of sleep hence me being wide awake writing this at 3.15am, but will try to sort it soon. So I am pulling an all-nighter tonight in a desperate attempt to reset my body clock and am amusing myself with one of may favourite episodes of The L Word where one-half of the lead couple has gone straight and holds a "mixed for her gay and straight friends" with her boyfriend. It's hysterically funny for lots of reasons, boy butter being one of them, the straight and gay friends who know nothing about opposing celebs/important people during a game of "celebrity" being another and finally the look on her face when she finally realises that her previous lifestyle just does not combine with her new "straight" lifestyle. Thank god she returns to the light side!

Tuesday

We were supposed to be going to visit the Puddles today but being ill put paid to that. Charlie not overly impressed but understanding when I explained.

He managed more of 2B today, just a page though, the bigger sums look daunting to him and even though he hasn't yet freaked out about them out loud, I think he is in his head. He looks and then assumes that he can't do them I think. But he did and got them all correct which led to more beaming smiles. He did normals and then helped me with parcels and weighing as usual and then seemed to play with his brio train set and read for the rest of the afternoon. Oh and he added some more detail to his schooner.

He also helped me get dinner ready and when I pulled the casserole out of the oven two and a half hours later, we discovered that the oven had obviously died. When I first put it on we thought it was going to catch fire as we could see orange flickering right at the back through a whole next to the fan. So that was great, having no dinner! Charlie got himself cereal and toast I think and I was forced to break my diet and have toast too. It was too late at this point to do anything else as all the meat etc was frozen. It also meant he had to miss Scouts, I wasn't impressed but he was ok about it.

After almost six months of almost no sleep every night, I've decided to finally give in and go to the doctors and get some sleeping tablets. Neither herbal stuff nor nytol have worked. Just need to make the time to go now.

Parcel Force woes

My parcel force delivery woman is lovely, truly she is. She's friendly, helpful, has learnt my first name and is always cheery at all hours of the day. Even before 9am. Even at 7.00 am. I don't think she has ever seen me dressed. This is because she always, always wakes me up when she delivers. She was late last week and I was happy. At 8.00am.

This morning at 7.00am after yet another night of little sleep, a lingering headache, I was not happy to see her. But she grinned and laughed about always being the one to wake me up and I managed a smile and reassurance that the DHL man is nearly as bad as her in his 7.30-8.30 slot and he comes here far more often that her.

So, not a good start to the morning!

Charlie has done so many normals today that I'm lost for words. He's SL'd, Singapore'd and EC'd with almost glee. He's been so proud of himself managing 2B work that he's spent the last 4 days beaming all the time. He's planning on taking the workbook with him to show Merry, bless.

I am so proud of him because there is no way he could even have begun to understand how to do the sums he's been doing, even a few months ago. He's got a long, long way to go to catch up but he'll get there.

Whoops......again

I had promised myself that I'd be better at blogging this year but I guess its time to admit defeat. When you end up doing two people's jobs plus all the parenting, cooking, housework and supposed educating, something has to give and at the moment its blogging, net surfing and reading. Pah.

February was another busy month, business greatly increased on Anara Toys, and Reward Board stock now running very low which is good as it means I will soon be able to close the current site and sort out the re-design and get new reward charts manufactured. The third website is getting closed to being launched, more dolls arrived for it last week but now have a bit of a wait for a ship from somewhere or other to bring the rest. Still need to source at least one more supplier before it can open and that is proving difficult.

I don't know what we did in February but on Sunday we went to London Zoo, which was a very long and tiring but great day. Got up at 7.30am, which neither Charlie nor I were that impressed with and made the first train to London at 9.00am. Tube'd over to Camden Town and had a pleasant sunny but windy walk to the Zoo.

Had a lovely time with friends with a 10 year old girl and 14 year old boy. Charlie and the girl ran off and were instant best friends, but Fran has nothing to worry about as he told me yesterday that X was really nice, but not as nice or beautiful as Fran!

Being there bought home just how easily led astray Charlie is, as he wandered off into the gift shop with X without coming and telling me where he is going. Honestly, he really will do almost anything any other child tells him to! We had words about that when we got home.

We were kicked out as the Zoo closed and made it home at 7.30pm exhausted!

In other news, my dad is allowing me to borrow his Smart car when he doesn't need to, which means I drive with my hood up a lot so no-one recognises me! Only joking.

Bev moved to Oxford on Tuesday as she has a new job there so this is good news for Charlie as she will start seeing him regularly at the weekends when she can. He is very pleased about it all.

Charlie started Scouts two weeks ago which he is loving, loving, loving. I'm amused each week at tales of the games they play, particularly lasts week which was "pop music" centered and involved his patrol gyrating and miming and making up a routine to go along with Girls Aloud "Love Machine". I will never forget the image of my 10 year son leaning over a chair and gyrating his body over it!

I started Slimming World 3 weeks ago in a battle to get rid of steroid and estrogen drug induced weight gain. This means I am actually drinking water, which is no mean feat as it usually makes me vomit.

Talking of vomit, for the first time in 8 years, I had to clean up vomit at 1am on Tuesday morning. Poor Charlie was so ill and I could barely remember what to do as he just doesn't do ill. He spent the whole day in bed with a burning temperature, looking like a ghost and being achey and completely weak but was absolutely fine by Wednesday morning.

Charlie is powering on with his maths now, he finished 1B some time ago and despite his protestations I think he found it too easy. Merry kindly threw in a 2A with her order and then a little while later I realised I needed some other bits and my mum got 2B too for him. I'm going to see if he can do any of 2B today. I ordered a load of English Magic Topics workbooks yesterday from Amazon. I am sure he is more than capable of doing them, but I thought we'd better check in and make sure he can. I don't even bother with spelling practice anymore as it seems so unnecessary with him, but will find a test for his age on the net and do a quick check to make myself feel better.

He's doing SL2 every day now and decided that he needs to double up some days and do weekends too because he keeps taking time off! He's back to doing EC as well, a couple of English and Maths games a day and anything else he wants to do. He is completely into Languages and loves the French and German on there, so I must make an effort to do something with him, being as I did both for GCSE and loved both.

Also doing a DWN each day too, mainly for the handwriting practice, but also because he loves drawing so much. He's been making paper airplanes out of every bit of paper he can find after learning how to make fancy ones with the kit Merry and the girls got him for his birthday. He even made one with £10 note my parents gave him yesterday! Receipts don't escape either.

Ermm, could not be more untrue!

I do NOT like 10 year olds at all, it is far too early to be up and now I'm off to London for the Toy Fair.

Weekend

Yesterday Charlie got stuck into some maths as we realised that he'd been forgetting to do any after his SL! I nearly made the mistake of reminding him that Amelie was on the same book as him but gladly managed to engage brain before speaking! I think now he's 10 that would too much for him to handle. He got really frustrated with the pattern pages mainly I think because he just couldn't see the point (have to agree) but I was very impressed that he got the bigger subtracting sums right because this time last year there is no way that would have happened!

So he did about 12 pages of 1B and then settled down to more airplane making. I must remember to photograph them all tomorrow - they look very pretty and he is loving this kit. It's kind of interesting even for me to see how well each different type flies. I *might* get him to make some kind of table of results and measure how far each one flies.

Today he went to my parents for a few hours over lunch time and did the RSPB bird watch whilst he was there as they loads of bird feeders and tables. Apparently he crouched under their outside table which had a waterproof cover for it so he could be in a hide :) Stayed there under the table for an hour apparently! He was really thrilled that I remembered to remind him this year but apparently we need some kind of code to put the results in.

When we got back home he made more airplanes, flew more airplanes and had a cry about something, not sure what but possibly a hormonal wobble connected to being 10. He also made a tent in his bedroom and played in there for a while before shower, dinner and bed.

Time for an update!

Charlie's birthday weekend in London was a great success. My parents drove there in the end as they had to leave on the Sunday due the photography club dinner, so I spent a nice quiet hour and a half in the back of their car with my earphones firmly in listening to music and watching rude The L Word video clips on my iPod so I didn't have to listen to their awful choice of radio station. Charlie sulked all the way there because I didn't let him bring his iPod and it was "so unfair and mean and evil" that I had mine :)

So on Friday after checking in to our respective rooms and unpacking, Charlie and I walked over to Waterloo station so I could buy my brother's girlfriend a birthday card and we stocked up on water, juice and munchies for the room.

My brother arrived at the hotel and we walked along South Bank down to the Oxo Tower My brother, Dad and I whipped out our cameras and took a variety of photos of St Pauls all lit up which was rather beautiful. My photos were awful as I only bought my compact camera with me and not my SLR.

Up to the top of the tower and we had a drink in the incredibly noisy bar whilst waiting for Kellie to arrive (brothers girlfriend) I had a little chuckle about the price of a round of drinks - a J2O, lemonade, diet coke, a beer and vodka and tonic was £38! We had a lovely table by the windows and the view was amazing. Food was fantastic too, Charlie had octopus for his main course which he loved and Kellie also had the octopus, so I was stuck with one person next to me eating it and one person opposite me eating it too, I looked out of the window or at the floor a lot to stop myself being sick. The tentacles were just too much for me in the end so I escaped to the toilets!

A really lovely evening actually, Nick managed not to wind Charlie up and they enjoyed some table drumming together along to the live music. Nick managed to crack a glass by tapping it with a spoon too and my mum was rather drunk and talking total crap, at which point my dad, Nick and Kellie all went outside onto the balcony to take some more photos leaving me and Charlie alone with her! Thanks for that - I escaped by e-mailing Merry on my Blackberry surreptiously under the table!

Back to the hotel quite late and straight to bed.

Saturday and we were up far too early for me and downstairs having breakfast before making our way to Charlie's first requested stop which was the V&A museum. We particularly enjoyed the Asia, photography and plastercast galleries. We had lunch and then off to Charlie's next requested stop - Harrods. We split up here and Charlie wanted to see the Food Hall first so we did that.

Most of my photos need some processing but this is Charlie-heaven - the Harrods Cheese Counter!


After dragging him away from the food he wanted to check out his favourite thing in Harrods - the Egyptian Escalator so we did that and then made our way up to the fourth floor so Charlie could ogle the old fashioned Silver Cross prams which he has a thing about for some reason and then we hit the toy department. I checked out some new lines that I want to stock which Harrods conveniently also stocks and then Charlie choose a teeny tiny mini remote control helicopter, a rather lovely teddy bear with Harrods embroidered on his foot and we also got some Rainbow Art markers too.

We found my parents again and I was really annoyed to see the same graphic anti-fur photos outside the door again, just like last year. Its just so inappropriate when there are children about. Don't get me wrong, I'm very much against the fur trade but I just don't need to see those photos, and neither do the children, its not fair when they are so graphic. I must remember to stop using that exit as its the only one they use and have been doing since I was a child going to Harrods! Its next to the tube station exit and entrance which is why they use it I guess.

Anyway, Charlie saw one of those hop on hop off London tour buses and decided that is what he wanted to do next. My parents didn't (funnily enough) so we went our separate ways. We sat inside as far too cold for the top deck and it was quite a pleasant 3 hours actually, that went really quickly, Charlie listened to the commentary and I listened to my iPod. There was a stop right outside our hotel so we jumped off and went back to the hotel before finishing the whole tour as it was already after 5pm by then.

After a bit of a rest in our room we went for dinner with my parents. Comedy moment when after the meal my mum ordered a small capacino The waitress couldn't find any small or medium cups only this bucket...


She was very peed off!! It was very funny, my dad and I kept cracking up every time she lifted it to take a sip.

Sunday started with breakfast again and then down to the pier in front of the hotel so we could get the boat to the O2. Boat was lovely, panoramic glass windows, leather seats, drinks and snacks on board too - would be a fab way to go to work every day. Charlie loved the boat ride as yet another way of sightseeing.

The King Tut exhibition was fantastic, we absolutely loved it. My parents weren't that impressed because they've been to Egypt twice now so have seen it all but Charlie and I really enjoyed it. The gift shop moment at the end was funny as it reminded me of Disney World but 1000 times more expensive - childrens pens for £8! Anyway we bought a few little bits and pieces and a book and Charlie had to buy presents for the Puddle girls of course.

We had lunch in Nandos and I tried desperately to get a glimpse of the Spice Girls ( well just Geri really) and failed. Back on the boat to the hotel and by then it was 3pm and my parents had to leave so we said our goodbyes.

Charlie and I walked back across Westminster Bridge and got the tube to Green Park and walked up Picadilly. Found a Waterstones so spent nearly 2 hours in there. I love going to bookshops in London because the big ones have a gay/lesbian section which means I can get some new books. I'm still sulking over the closing of Silver Moon 7 years ago!

Charlie happily settled down in the childrens department and we both read to our hearts content before purchasing our books.

Although we were an hour early, by 5pm I was hungry, so we walked up to Rainforest Cafe where we had reservations for dinner. The first time we went here was in 2002 and the food was fantastic but the last two times it has been crap and this was no exception but it was Charlie's choice. The ones in Florida are much, much better. Dessert and the smoothies were fab though and Charlie enjoyed himself. We mooched around the shop before heading back to the hotel and admiring London all lit up.

Monday and we had a lie in as we were exhausted from all the walking we had done! After breakfast we packed up and caught the train home, getting back at 1pm.

I had a fit because my car wasn't ready and begged the garage to do something because I needed to pick up Charlie's cake in town the next morning at 9am. The lovely lady sorted out that they would drop the car to me at 8.30am on Tuesday.

Tuesday Up early to get everything ready for Charlie's birthday. He opened his presents and cards and was rather happy I think. I got him lots of books, DS games, an ant thingy and some craft kits from PlayMerrily. The car was delivered promptly at 8.30 so we went straight into town to pick up his cake and then straight to Sainsburys to get some food before rushing back to tidy up and sort everything out before Merry and the girl arrived.

When they arrived the eldest two help me decorate the sitting room whilst Amelie kept Charlie upstairs as he was engrossed in Animal Crossing that Maddy had helped him set up.

Merry saved the day by reattaching Mickey's ears and hand and we all had a lovely time. Charlie was so thrilled to have them there to share his day.

After they left my parents came for cake and more present giving.

Wednesday and Charlie went with my dad to see Vera (my grandmother) in the morning and then in the afternoon we went out to sell my car.

Thursday and Friday were a blur of work and meetings and stuff and Saturday and Sunday were a mixture of relaxing at home and going into town on the bus which was a first and typical that the bus home broke down before it got to use so we sat in the cold for an hour waiting for the next one. Charlie spent just £20 of his birthday money on two Playmobil sets, saving the other £30. Which reminds me that I must get a savings account sorted for him.

This week has just been mainly work and Charlie is powering on with his SL2. On Thursday I went into town alone to get some new jeans as mine have developed a hole and yesterday Charlie got out the paper airplane kit that the girls gave him for his birthday. He spent ages making some of the planes and has been making more this morning. I can thoroughly recommend this kit, he loves it.

As seen at Helen's blog

What type of Mother Hen Are You?
by Montessorimom.com: Educational Resource

Not a good year so far

Everything that could go wrong has, from personal to stupid little business stuff. Enough already! Somebody or something obviously really doesn't like me.

Tested out my new 50mm prime lens this morning and it seems rather good. Hoping that it might be sunny enough tomorrow to take it outside and do some macro work with it.

I have been trying to plan Charlie's birthday celebrations a bit more over the last few days. On Friday we are off to London for 3 nights and my parents are joining us for 2 of those nights. We have King Tut tickets for the Sunday morning and my mum is desperately trying to find somewhere with London Eye night ticket but having no luck. Only been up in the day time (twice now) and really want to go at night. Charlie has requested the following visits - British Museum for the Egyptian and Greek stuff, the V&A, Madame Tussards, Harrods, Selfridges, Trafalgar Square, Kew Gardens, Covent Garden, Rainforest Cafe so I have no idea how we will fit all that in!

Sleeping monster

I just realised that some time earlier this month was my 3 year blogversary - whoa that has gone fast. Must do better at keeping up in 2008, particularly as I have got very lax with my photography too.

Pre-Christmas passed in a blur of parcel wrapping, had orders every day even on Christmas Eve with the exception of the 18th! It always amuses me when people order after the last posting date. Have a huge sale on at the moment to clear toys that will no longer be stocked by us.

Was really angry when an idiot in a Range Rover drove straight into the back of us when I was coming out of Sainsburys the Wednesday before Christmas. My car was supposed to have been sold by now but it can't even be seen by the garage until the 3rd Jan. He's totally mushed the boot, you can't even press the button to open the boot let alone open the boot. We had to fold the middle seat down and drag 4 huge bags full of shopping out through that small gap - thank god for Scenics and their folding seats!

It definitely aggrevated my previous neck injury so I'm thrilled!

My parents flew off for Christmas in Egypt last Sunday, so we went there on the Saturday and had mince pies and exchanged gifts. I got a lovely 50mm prime lens, some DVD's and other bits and pieces which made me very happy. Charlie got some DVD's, entire Harry Potter book set, speakers for his iPod and some other bits that I can't remember.

Sarah came over after that and we exchanged presents, had a takeaway and watched the Strictly Come Dancing final with much joy. I am going to miss her so much when she goes off to Australia in March.

Sunday saw Charlie and I going to the tip to rid the house of the mountain of empty stock boxes - the house and garage looked so different once they were all gone!

We went into town on Christmas Eve but I can't remember why - was just for a mooch I think!

Charlie went to bed after being read Night Before Christmas but didn't fall asleep until about 11.30 as usual - not excitement, just his usual insomnia. I bought all the presents down and hand to remove his monorail from around the base of the tree because there was no room for the presents. Was very odd doing all this alone.

On Christmas morning Charlie bought his stocking into my room as usual and was really thrilled with his Walt Disney World pins for his collection, Disney favourites CD and Zoo Tycoon for his DS.

Then downstairs for present opening. The iPod, inline skates, electronic Monopoly and dominoe rally went down particularly well. Charlie played with dominoe rally on and off all day alternated with a few tries at inline skating. Christmas lunch was ready bang on 1pm and was lovely, I excelled myself with the potatoes and parsnips particularly.

Mum and Dad called from Egypt and my brother from Australia, no comment! Bev managed to remember her promise to call Charlie although the fact that she could only spare 45 minutes was upsetting for him, it would have been better if she hadn't bothered to be honest.

A nice afternoon spent watching films cuddled up on the sofa.

I woke up crippled by my back on Boxing Day so we didn't go into town for Charlie to spend his Christmas money as it took until 3pm before I could actually stand up and walk. More film watching and Charlie played with the dominoe rally again.

We did make it into town the next day and Charlie bought Horse Life and replacement stylus for his DS and 3 PC games and we mooched in Waterstones too. I couldn't find anything to buy with any of my christmas vouchers.

Friday I think was just more slobbing around although I have been working on all my sites in various ways as I am rather bored now.

Yesterday we went to Tesco's in the afternoon and managed to get some underbed storage crates for Charlie.

Really bored with the Christmas hols now and desperate for everything to get back to normal. Am definitely thinking of going away next Christmas as being on your own is no fun at all and incredibly depressing at times too.

Thinking of going to see the GP next week as sleeping issues getting worse and worse, I either can't sleep at all, or get insomnia until 2/3am and then fall into a comatose sleep until 2/3pm which is no good!

Dr Who totally sucks

Having just turned over to BBC1 to wait for Eastenders and I was reminded just how utterly rubbish Dr Who is as I was met with an image of him flying the Titanic saving it from crashing into Buck Palace, Lizzie in her dressing gown and curlers (as if) and then the SWINE didn't save Min. WTF is that about? Outrageous!

Double choc chip muffins, pina coladas and good girly company. What more do you need for the weekend and watching Cheese X Factor?

Got lax again

We haven't managed to get started on SL2 as yet so Charlie has only been doing Singapore Maths over the last week. Will hopefully get a chance to start on SL2 tomorrow as its only really the first couple of days that need me helping/supervising because its a recap of SL1. Once I've started him off I'll let him go it alone.

He's been doing a lot of reading again and also a lot of map drawing, he's been particularly keen on contour maps and has been trying some of these out, including drawing one of Soar Mill Cove where we stayed in May for my dad's 60th.

He's surprising me with the whole maths thing at the moment as he seems a little bit more capable than I'd realised. I'm beginning to wonder whether the EC maths wasn't working for him because I had no input in it, whereas with workbook maths he brings it to me to check when he has finished. Or maybe he has been playing me all along and is far more capable at maths than he makes out and just hates it so much he does it wrong on purpose - I will be furious if I find out that is what he's been doing! Having said that he has to use rods, blocks or fingers for adding and subtracting without fail. I wonder if this is a problem for a very nearly 10 year old but I don't see how I can take his fingers or blocks etc away when he really can't do any mental maths at all. Sigh - I suppose I can't really say anything because I still use my fingers for maths when I want to make doubly sure of something.