24th February 2014 - Still not an Auntie...

3 days post-due date and my niece/nephew hasn't arrived. Boo, unborn child. Auntie Whiney is not amused...neither is Mummy or Daddy...but AUNTIE WHINEY AND UNCLE DINO!

We got up and went to the gym and did the gym thing. It was all very blah. And quite quiet.

Then, to work. Paul had a study day at home so at least I got a lift! That's always nice!

T was late in this morning, so I had our room to myself. On went the radio! I do like having some background music!

When T came in, about 10:30am, she couldn't actually do any work!

Gif from Tumblr. Thank you. :)

This was T's reaction. I was a bit more of a willing participant in this game so I gave her my licence so she could get on with the work. Mostly as I had 5 files of papers to collate, organise and review. Fascinating.

From there, the day went pretty long to be honest. As Monday always does. I was looking forward to coming home, but only because it's not the office.

I had a hot date with a friend of mine.

So romantic!

The pile of ironing isn't getting any smaller and there is loads more washing to do, so I had to bite the bullet and get some done. I did a couple of hours-worth while Paul did some cooking for Wednesday night, and then he made our dinner!

Yeppers - fake Nand0s! :)

Delish. It was fabulous.

We watched the newest ep of Castle and the end of an episode of Arrow, then went to do a few chores before bed. I put washing out to dry and Paul washed up. He also decided to give the cat water fountain a clean. Except when he put it back together, it didn't work. I think the pump has gone. HMPH. Silly Cat Mate machine. Have read reviews that have said that the pumps are a bit naff. Sort it out.

Then bed.

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23rd February 2014 - I'm sure I have better things to do...

Still no baby Hartley yet...

I woke up stupidly early this morning, after not a lot of sleep, just like last week. I am not amused. So I shut my eyes and pretended to be asleep to see if I'd fall back to sleep. I did! Success!

Paul got up early to watch Match of the Day, which he missed last night, and I stayed in bed. He also had to energise as he was going for a run with his imaginary friend (old joke! :P) and I stayed in bed.

He went for a run and I stayed in bed. I continued the special features that I hadn't watched from The Hobbit yesterday. I still had about 4 hours left. So I thought I should probably watch them. The best place for that - bed.

Barney agreed! He even let me tickle his belly! I class today a success!

Paul came back from his run, showered and I was still in bed. He then went to meet his imaginary friend (lolz) at the pub to watch some football. I was invited! You guessed it, I stayed in bed.

"You did the right thing, Mama!"

When the special features finished I was at a loose end. To watch the movie, or to watch something else? I realised I couldn't deprive Paul of the film, so I watched more Veronica Mars! I've nearly finished it now! I should be on track for the movie! Yay! Not that it's being released anywhere near here. Boo.

Paul eventually came home, made dinner and we watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - extended edition. It's great. I am so excited for the next movie to be released! I even pre-ordered it today!

Yep - over 9 hours of special features watched by me this weekend. Proud of my nerdiness!

We then went to bed. We are crazy! I was out of bed for all of 4 hours today! I love Sunday! :)

PREVIOUSLY...

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22nd February 2014 - Just chillin'

Saturday! Saturday! Saturday! Saturday! Saturday! Saturday! - Elton John. :)

Still no niece or nephew. :(

Lazy morning. Not a bad sleep. Not an amazing one! The joy of Saturday is that we didn't have to get up today so could doze as long as we liked!

I was feeling pretty miserable this morning to be honest. Not sure why. Just not particularly perky. I contemplated lots of things that might cheer me up. I'm thinking I might go to college or night school and get a new hobby, maybe? Paul is very supportive, especially when I suggested I could do sports massage! I'd have a willing volunteer!

I was going to look into courses and got my laptop, but instead of finding my mouse, I found this...

I think she ate it. My cat on a mouse mat. This tickled me! :)

I was still feeling miserable, so I coccooned myself in the bedroom, thinking I'd do some more card making, but that wasn't working. I needed to go to my happy place. Unfortunately, the remote control for the tv in our bedroom stopped working, and we couldn't switch it on. We did some research, called the company who makes the brand of tv and they are sending us a new remote free of charge! SCORE! While looking for the model and serial number of the tv, we also found a hidden switch which could be used to turn on the tv, change the mode etc...so we've been sitting, wallowing that we haven't had a working tv in our room for ages, when there's been a hidden button there all the time. We're dumbasses.

Paul watched the football downstairs, and I decided to watch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on blu ray. But instead of watching the films, I thought I'd totally nerd out and watch the Appendices which have all the making-ofs etc. I loved the ones for The Lord of the Rings, so why not?! Two discs of nerdy stuff! I got through the first disc and it really did help me cheer up a little! I did also get teary when they were in Hobbiton and played 'Concerning Hobbits' from LotR...the string quartet who played at our wedding ceremony played this while we were signing the register and was the reason we hired them! I'm a sap!

Paul also wanted to cheer me up, so brought me a naughty treat!

 We finally had some Dino prosecco!

Let's pretend that they named it after him. :)

I eventually came downstairs for dinner (steak) and we watched some Justified. Paul went to bed quite early (he has to run tomorrow), so I stayed up and watched more Veronica Mars as I wasn't tired, until it got to about 11:30pm and it really was bed time!

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21st February 2014 - Happy due date, Ambel!

My niece or nephew is due to be born today! But as per pretty much every due date ever, (s)he won't arrive today. But I can still hope. COME ON, BABY! :)

We had a pretty poor night's sleep. When the alarm went off for the gym, I was pretty sure I was going to fall back to sleep if I didn't get up. I let it snooze once and fell asleep. As soon as it went off again I had to get up otherwise I would go back to dreamland!

We did gym and I did some weights. I can feel the aching starting from yesterday in the gym so it's going to be an ouchy weekend!

Paul was working from home today, so I had first shower then procrastinated about going into the office! I tried to give Barney a cuddle but he was having none of it.

You may not stroke me, Mama. Leave me ALONE.

There might have been teeth after this!

Nothing exciting in work. As ever. Very busy day and we cracked on with it. The first hour was SO SLOW. Then the rest of the day was slightly quicker. But only slightly. :(

Thankfully, the end of the day came and I was able to head home. I sat and had a beer and we tried to decide what to watch.

I was in the mood for a bit of action, but not straight away as it was too early. So I gave the remote to Paul. He chose Ghostbusters.

Yep.

Always enjoyable!

After that, we had to see what was suggested by Netflix. Paul wasn't paying attention, so I decided to watch a favourite of mine from back in the day - The Addams Family!

Harmless entertainment!

Neither of us could decide what to watch after that so we finished The Good Wife! We just need to see when the new series is showing over here so we have another show to keep up with! :)

We also had a nice glass of wine, or two, while we enjoyed our retro movies!

We had a case of this a couple of years ago! It was good so we ordered some for Christmas and got around to having one tonight! :)

We didn't have an overly late night. But it was a nice night!

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20th February 2014 - This isn't the blog post you were looking for...

We did it! We got up and went to the gym! For the first morning in AGES! I am proud of us, to say we didn't sleep great! Go team!

I did some biking and arm biking and 50 sit ups...which was tough. I don't do sit ups often. I remember why. They're difficult.

Then to work. Which was AMAZING! I HAD THE BEST DAY EVER!

Yeah, you got me. I was the same as always.

gif courtesy of Tumblr

Pretty much what Spike said.

Nothing at all of any interest.

I came home and decided that tonight I would finish the thank you cards that I feel like I have been making forever! So I did! They're pretty much all done now, just got to address them and spend a fortune on postage again.

We had dinner, watched some tv then decided on an early night, and to chill with a book before sleepy time.

That is until Darth Vader came to invade.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees it!

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19th February 2014 - Foamy.

“12% of people with glasses wear them as an attempt to see better. 88% of people with glasses wear them as an attempt to appear smarter.”  - Mokokoma Mokhonoana

I think I had an ok sleep last night. Which is pretty remarkable really. I think OK is the best I can hope for at the moment!

<>

It got to about 3:50pm when I got a text from bossman T asking me to find him a hotel room in London as otherwise he'd have to sleep in his car tonight. Um, ok? So I set to finding him somewhere to stay. There were no vacancies in the places he wanted, and he vetoed the places I suggested. I eventually found a room in one of the hotels he suggested and I told him the same and the price. He didn't get back to me. I asked him again if he needed it booking as I needed to leave. He came back with 'no thanks'.

He made me run late.

You see, I had an opticians appointment to attend, and I had to walk there, which took 20 minutes. I am so lucky that Paul got home early from a meeting and was able to drive me. I would have been very late had I not had my personal chauffeur.

The appointment went well apart from the lights being shined into my eyes. It made them water and it made my head hurt. Which didn't finish hurting for the rest of the evening. :(

My prescription hasn't changed but I figured I'd get another pair of glasses anyway, as I only got one pair last time, and my other pairs are very old.

Turns out work part-pays for the glasses! SCORE! Plus, it's buy one get one free over a certain price! SECOND SCORE! So I ordered two pairs of glasses with anti-glare coating for less than it would cost for 1 pair at full price! WHOOP!

I can go to collect them a week tomorrow. I'm already excited. Paul helped me pick some frames that are a little different than the ones I usually wear, so that's fun.

We then headed home. Paul started cooking, and I cleared up a little ready for #Whedonsday!

If you insist, Buffy!

Yes, we're back on the foamy goodness tonight and it was awesome! I missed beer. We had some great eps of Buffy to watch as well, plus a nice curry and cheesecake combo for dinner. A successful evening I think!

Then, after it was over, we headed to bed. I needed to rest my sore head and hope that the pain would go away so we could gym in the morning!

PREVIOUSLY...

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18th February 2014 - Groundhog Day

For the record, I don't know if there actually is a Groundhog Day other than the movie, but seriously, today is that day.  Tomorrow will be as well. As was yesterday.

I slept a little better, which is nice. Not amazing, and certainly not 8 hours straight, but I probably got 6 hours straight and I class that as a win!

Then to the office. Where, as stated above, we go back into the time loop. Every day is just like the one before, for those 8 hours. WAA.

Thank you, Tumblr!

So yeah. T and I almost have an unofficial timeline to the day! Down to when the brews are made and lunch is taken. It's always the same old same old on the phone and in the post. I had something new and interesting in the email, however the email was telling me I hadn't done stuff. Which I had. And if they'd taken another 10 seconds to look, they'd see I had. Hmph. I don't like getting told off when I haven't done anything wrong.

Every day is the same. 5 days of the same in one week. 4 weeks of 5 days of the same in a month...you get what I'm saying.

Again, thanks Tumblr

After work, I headed home and decided that instead of sitting and feeling sorry for myself, I'd be productive and do some ironing.

Except the iron didn't want to play ball either.

It wanted Paul's top to be polka-dotted instead. See how it gives me a smiley face at the bottom as well? It's like it's taunting me!

I got a bit done, thank goodness. Paul won't have to go to work topless for the next few days! It was time for usual chicken and chorizo dinner and some more The Good Wife! At least with all our shows on a break at the minute we have some good catch up time with other shows! Only 2 eps left of this season! EEP!

Then another fairly early night was to be had. I had a play with Barney to try to wear him out a little then it's lights out, all out.

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17th February 2014 - Someone needs to be fired.

Not me, before you wonder. I'm a good hard worker!

Really terrible night's sleep. Paul couldn't sleep. I couldn't sleep. Barney didn't want us to sleep. Not good at all.

Yep - I was like a yawning kitten all day. Except less cute. And not actually allowed to sleep.

My kittens acting like my kittens normally do...Maia barged to one side so Barney can get in, and both watching the ever unobtainable birds.

Our dull as dishwater street must be fascinating to them!

Had to psyche myself up for another week in the office. It's very boring at the moment. Same old same old. Always made worse by it being Monday.

 Thanks, Blondie-bear.

Nothing to report as far as work is concerned. I was tired. I did work. It was yawnsome.

I was very lucky in that Paul was able to pick me up from work and drive me home. I do like having a chauffeur! We had lots to do, including some washing up as I was in no fit state to do it last night.

We realised that we didn't have some of the ingredients for dinner, and by the time Paul had gone out to get them and come back, it was too late to cook it, so we had naughty tea (again) of pizza and picky bits.

On the picky bits, we noted a grammatical error.

Tesco - Taco is singular. Tacos is plural. Rogue apostrophes irritate me. I could let it go on the other side where it's talking about the nutritional value (which there are none for these bits) but on the ingredients? No. bad proof reader. They don't do it on 'Wedges' above, so why on 'Tacos'?

We watched some more The Good Wife then headed to bed, as my head wasn't great and we were both knackered. We had a real early night. Fingers crossed for sleep!

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16th February 2014 - Phantom faces at the window. Phantom shadows on the floor...

It's another lazy Sunday! WHOOP! Although I have loads to do today and very little motivation, what with being up til the early hours of the morning!

I was wide awake at 6am. Not good.

I managed to doze for a while then decided that I needed to be productive today, so got on with some bits and bobs. Paul decided he was in the way, so went downstairs to watch football. Yup. That's how we roll.

I developed a bit of a headache as the day wore on. Nothing I couldn't cope with and paracetamol couldn't help stem. Although it didn't really.

I procrastinated for a while.

I found this monkey on the floor (which is in bad state...I know...I know) which I had been tormenting Barney with on Friday. My parents bought it as a tacky present for Gibraltar a couple of years ago, meaning it to be for the cats, but they've never shown interest. You press it's stomach and it wolf-whistles, stating that it loves you, then giggles hysterically. Looks like Barney wants to be it's friend!

I was singing along with some show tunes while I was being creative, when I noticed that Maia was on the bedroom window. It was a glorious day outside, so the sun was streaming through the blinds. It was creating pretty images on the ceiling!

Such a pretty shadow my Maia has! The pigeons were clearly being very interesting this fine day!

My headache was getting progressively worse and I pretty much gave up on doing anything of any importance for the rest of the day. So I came downstairs to keep Paul company and wait for dinner!

Slow roasted Pork belly with all the trimmings!

 Looks yummy, no? Well, it was. Except that my head was so bad I started to feel sick and couldn't finish it.

Looking back on this now I am absolutely gutted as it looks amazing and it's making my mouth water. Hmph.

Will you make it again soon, Paul? :)

We watched a couple of eps of The Good Wife then went to bed. Sleep is needed.

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2013 - Wow. Can't believe this was a year ago! :)

15th February 2014 - Happy Birthday, Mummy Hartley! :)

Everyone please wish my lovely Mum a happy birthday for today! :)

We woke up very early this morning which is fine as we didn't have to get up! We both managed to get back to sleep and get another hour or so. I love the weekend!

Don't really have much to write about today to be honest! We were very lazy indeed and didn't really do anything! Only a tiny bit of hangover as well, which is good!

There was nothing really on tv so we watched more The Good Wife pretty much all afternoon/evening/night. Over half way through the last series on Netflix now. Will soon be caught up! :)

Maia, Barney and Paul are judging me for being lazy. It's quite scary to turn around and see your two cats and husband watching you...

 Outtake - it almost looks like Barney is sat on Paul's head. Teehee!

We decided to have another naughty night and ordered Chinese takeaway. We had to try somewhere new as our usual takeaway wasn't open. Devastated. IT was ok. Paul and I swapped dishes and were both happier with the outcome so even better!

We then had Aldi Tiramisu for pudding. Which was ok. I think. I don't really remember as I had been drinking fizz all afternoon and was a little merry! ;)

 Paul went to bed but I was still wide awake so I stayed up with the intention of watching one more episode. I ended up watching 3. Why? Because I couldn't move! I was pinned to the sofa BY TWO CATS!

Yes. Two! Maia AND Barney came to snuggle on me! THIS NEVER HAPPENS!

 I had to take loads of pictures to document it as I knew Paul wouldn't believe me until he saw it! Plus I wanted to remember such a momentous occasion!

It's shocking not only that I was honoured enough to get a cuddle from little Beep, but also that Maia put up with him being so close for over half an hour!

Eventually she jumped off, and I expected Barney to do the same. Nope - he just cuddled down some more!

AW!

I finished watching at around 12:45am! Yikes. Hadn't intended on going to bed that late! I was tempted to sleep on the sofa because of the Barney cuddles but I wasn't tired (or drunk) enough to fall asleep there, so I took myself to bed, trying not to wake the snoring Paul!

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14th February 2014 - Romance ain't dead!

"If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love." - Maya Angelou 

Really bad sleep. Bored of this now. Both Paul and I were awake at silly o'clock. We were not amused. Getting bored of this bad night sleep malarkey! 

Still, it's Valentine's Day so Paul and I exchanged cards and that was the end of that! We don't do Valentine's Day really.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, EVERYONE!

I love you too, Nathan.

Dragged myself into work and was in a bad mood most of the day. There's a very odd atmosphere in  the office at the minute and we're not overly sure why. It's not welcome. 

Made it to the end of the day and noticed that it was pouring down with rain. Boo. But Paul was there to pick me up! YAY!

We got home and it was time for the end of our self-imposed sobriety! 44 days off the beer and time to get back on it! To be honest, I wasn't that bothered about having a drink, as I think I've got quite used to not drinking, but we said we'd have a drink tonight so we did!

I'm quite proud of myself for making it through that long! To be honest, it was really easy! When we did it 3 years ago, I remember having one night where I found it really tough, but I didn't have any this time! Cutting down is definitely a good thing!























Paul's beer on the left and mine on the right. Maia in the background eating every last morsel of her dindins!

We sat watching telly for a while, then had to go and get ready as we had a reservation at a local restaurant for a nice romantic meal for Valentine's Day...

Yeah, we went for a curry.

:)

It's the first time we've actually been out for dinner on Valentine's Day, so I think actually we may start a new tradition of curry on Valentine's Day! Nothing says 'I love you' more than a naan bread, right? I also learnt at the time of writing this that my bro and sis-in-law also went for a curry as well, so it must be a good thing to do! They even made her a special baby-inducing one, but still no babba. Yet!

The curry place was quiet when we got there but I think it may have been full by the time we left! We brought the party, apparently! 

The food was very good, as ever, and we left nice and full!



I can't remember the name of mine but it was very tomato-ey and had a mushroom omelette on top (which was yummy)! 

Paul left it to the chef to make him a curry! He said what sort of heat he would like it and what meat to put in it, and they came up with this! He really liked it but couldn't finish it because it was a little too hot. He feels he has failed but I think he did well.

We stopped to get some gin on the way home and then headed back for a nice gin and tonic. We watched some of The Losers which was on 5* then headed to bed before I fell asleep on the sofa! Success!

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