Way too much alcohol...again.

After my girls night in on the 17th I wasn't planning on drinking for a while but that didn't last long as Tim & Deanna came round for lunch on the Sunday and by 1pm I was drinking wine again.
Monday 19th was a school holiday so a crowd of us went to the cinema to see 'Hotel for Dogs' with the kids. Then on Saturday Tom & I went to see 'Inkheart' which was good (as long as you haven't read the book). Also on Saturday we had loads of children round to play while their parents were painting and/or running errands. Nick & I are beginning to wonder if 'painting' is a euphemism for something else!!!

Friday night saw us celebrating Burns Night at the Officers Mess and then Sunday we celebrated Australia Day. I would like to note I remained sober on both occassions, pretty impressive huh?


Kate, Ross, Kelly & Anthony looking rather natty in their Aussie hats.


I did not, however, remain sober last night and am feeling rather fragile this morning. Scott, Emma, Craig & Bernice came round for dinner last night, and for a midweek dinner a lot of wine was consumed. I am so glad I did not have anything more taxing than the school run to do this morning. After successfully completing that task I ate some breakfast and went back to bed. However, after getting up to answer the door and then the phone twice I have given up on that idea and thought I should update this instead.

No Snickering - That Road Sign Means Something Else - NYTimes.com

No Snickering - That Road Sign Means Something Else - NYTimes.com

Click on the above link for a funny article in the New York Times that was brought to our attention by Tim. I had to share it, it's so funny.

Brrrr

It has been very cold this week and we had a very chilly start to Friday, with the car thermometer showing -6C during the school run. Very unusual for Alabama. Kate & I didn't venture out to golf yesterday as we decided it would have been too cold, we managed a game of tennis later on in the day though.


Nick has been able to avoid the cold temperature by being in San Antonio this week. As he was away Kate, Dorothy & Kelly came round on Friday night to keep me company and drink some wine. And boy, did we drink some wine.

This morning I was feeling very tired and hungover as I only had 5 hours sleep.

Tom had a football game that I had to take him to. I'm afraid I didn't manage much in the way of vocal support - it was all I could do to sit there and watch. Came back home for a well deserved nap after the game and was just settling into bed when there was a loud noise from the outside of the wall and then the sound of water. Bugger, the outside pipe had burst. Bang went my afternoon nap. Four & a half hours later the (very busy) emergency plumber came out and stopped the leak. Luckily Nick was back home from San Antonio by now so he was able to do manly stuff and manage better than I would have done had I been here by myself.

After the plumber left, we all went out for dinner and I feel much better now that I have eaten something substantial (steak & chips with sauteed mushrooms, onions & bell peppers). Just what was needed. Now I am waiting for the bread to be cooked so I can go to bed nice and early.

Back to routine

After the excitement of Hogmanay and New Year(!) we had a few days to chill out before returning back to the day to day routine of school/work/general lazing around (work out who's routine is who's?). We went bowling and I took the children to see 'Bedtime Stories' at the movies. This is a really good fun film.



The children quickly adjusted back to school but my body is still adjusting back to my personal trainer sessions - I was sore last week but am hopeful that I will be okay tomorrow. Golf was a bit of a washout as the course was really wet so Kate & I decided to go for coffee instead. We did manage a game of tennis on Friday though along with Kelly & Bernice. Friday night saw us all round at Dorothy & Neil's for drinks and nibbles and Saturday night we all gathered again but this time we were round at Tamsin & Shaun's for drinks and a potluck supper. On Sunday, I had Tamsin's two kids (Jordyn & Aimee) round to play with Tom & Lily, they all had a great time playing dress up, baking cakes and lego-ing. When it came to decorating the cakes they went to town and really overloaded them with sugar sprinkles, jelly beans and mini marshmallows - less is more is definitely not a recognised phrase among 5-8 year olds.

This morning it was very cold but beautiful, and it is expected to get even colder later in the week with an overnight low of -5C (25F) predicted, so we have laid out some of Lily's toy kitchen pots and pans with water so they can play with the ice in the morning before heading off to school. This seems to be a fun thing to do, unfortunately I don't have any food colouring to colour the water for them. Right, Tom & I are off up the YMCA for a bit of keep fit, so more later.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all and welcome to 2009. Last night Nick and I stayed up until 11pm then went to bed and welcomed the new year in this morning at a more civilized hour...I had thought that I might start the new year with a morning run but obviously changed my mind when I got up this morning and busied myself making croissants for breakfast instead. I did manage a few half hearted press ups but this was really just a token effort at the keep fit. I'm not looking forward to going back to my personal training sessions next week after 3 weeks off. I fear it will be exhausting.

After a New Years lunch of lamb, mashed spuds, carrots & broccoli, we shall spend the rest of the day relaxing with some wine (well I will, Nick is still marking exam papers!)

Belated Merry Christmas

Having arrived home from Mexico late on Saturday night, we celebrated Christmas yesterday instead. After opening all our presents, thank you very much everyone, Tom disappeared into his bedroom to start the marathon Lego building frenzy that Christmas always brings, Lily was off playing with her American Girl doll, cat, dog and rabbit, Nick started reading one of his books after transerring all his golf clubs into his smart new golf bag and I was itching to start downloading music onto my smart new ipod. Having consumed some champagne the meal was thankfully a success and we got started on the red wine. Now we just have to write our thank you letters to y'all.

Feliz Navidad from Mexico

We flew out to Playa del Carmen, Mexico on Saturday 20th December for a week in the sun, this was our first meal out after a day in the sun - guess who forgot to take a hat on holiday?

After a couple of days lounging on the beach we ventured out in our hire car for a drive to Tulum. This is an old Mayan ruin similar to Chichen Itza only much smaller and a much shorter drive. It was funny getting into a manual car again after driving an automatic for 18 months, also the car had no power steering and even though it was a very small car it was really clunky and hard to drive. Got used to it very quickly though, unlike Nick, who managed to stall it once. heeheehee, so glad I didn't do that.

Another day spent lazing on the beach, building sandcastles and jumping waves and then on
Christmas Day we went on a boat trip out to a reef for a bit of snorkelling. This was great fun and even Lily had a go and enjoyed it. On the way back, Antonio, our man in charge of the boat decided to have some fun...

and went really, really fast bumping over all the waves and wakes from other boats. Flippin 'eck, I thought I was going to throw up, we were getting bumped about all over the place, I'm surprised one of us wasn't thrown overboard, I nearly lost my hat and was feeling quite sick, however as you can see Lily was loving it....She is happy in the picture, honest.