Feeling hot hot hot!

Not due to the weather - it's chuffing freezing. Although the plus is gorgeous, clear blue sky. 

It was due to the Hairy Dieters Bikers chaps. Noo, not because I find them attractive in *that* way,  my onscreen husband, Mr Ray sexypants Winstone would not like it: indeed neither would my rockstar husband Mr Brandon *sigh* Flowers, ( who knew I was a serial bigamist! ) it was of course their wonderful chicken biryani recipe.
Eeeee it's spiceh!! Lips aflame, mouth like a furnace, there was talk of worry for the morning.......

I discussed this with a chum who is also an expert HB recipe follower. Now, compared to her, I am a massive girl when it comes to spicy hot food. She likes the flames out of the ears effect. Naturally she was sympathetic to my plight as one would expect from a friend....yes, she laughed her head off at me . Then confessed to always halving the amount of chilli in their recipes.

It made five decent sized bowls of 380calories of yumminess. Please excuse the sloppy appearance. I'd been poking around in it. There are ten cardomom pods and six cloves in this recipe. I loathe biting into a cardomom pod. Also, using a basmati/wild rice mix was a bit dim too, as the black rice grains, look EXACTLY like cloves. So, next time, I will halve the amount of chilli, and tie the cardomom and cloves in a bit of muslim! 

What else  have I been up to? Well, loads actually. It's Tax Return time for the HG. His part is putting all the receipts in the one place. My part is the book keeping bit. Actually, last year, I vowed to make it easier, by doing the books once a month. So when I sat down last Saturday, I of course, bitterly regretted breaking my vow!!

The 'loads actually' I refer to in the above paragraph include millions of non jobs that needed doing. Everything that I could do to put off starting the paperwork. I tidied the bookcase in the dining room for example. I changed my bed for the second time this week. I. Ironed! I faffed around in the kitchen. I looked out of the window pictured above. A lot. Etc etc.when. Finally made myself get sat down and start. I discovered that the Bank Statement for Oct/Nov 2013 was missing. Where was it? I hunted it down like a caveman desperate for a chunk of T Rex steak. The magazine rack was inadvertently tidied. The HG's junk draw at the side of his chair - he will protest about the word 'junk' was tidied, The huge underbed box of household filing was gone through. ( I'd tidied that in Summer ). All of the areas it could have been, were searched. To no avail. Gone.  Yes, the HG could register for online banking, but that letter was missing too. Besides, the HG was out! Giving me space and peace and quiet to do the accounts. I may have used the opportunity to watch an episode of Lost...

Worry ye not, the accounts are now sorted. I've started a new fluffy teddy for my niece who had very jealous eyes for Harry's fluffy teddy. I've not done any baking as I'm trying my bestest not to eat any baking! I do describe myself as round and squishy in the profiley bit on my blog page, however I think I could quite truthfully change the words to 'positively spherical' right now!

( Thanks Google Images! ) 

None of us are big boned! 

Another week of January draws to a close bringing me a week closer to

Feb half term!!!!
Peter Kay in Feb
The teen turning 18 in April
The uni one finishing uni in June
The uni one turning 21 in June
Me, turning *28* in June ( eternally so )
A Level results angst ALL summer round two
The uni one coming back home
Sending my baby boy off to uni
Thinness
CHRISTMAS!

 I sooooo did not plan that very well at all!!! A very expensive 'coming of age' year and one back, one gone! My craft room is going to have to wait......


Or did I plan it PERFECTLY?! I will not be childless!
The uni one already said that she would come home for a bit to fill the needy parent wants a child gap , before she flies off to the other side of the world.


Well I best sign this off before another week has flown...What are you closer to this week?

Love from an Eternally 28 year old Rachel 'Procrastinator Extraordinaire' Radiostar xxx
( I'm blogging instead of getting ready for work!)

Slightly less lazy......tackling the grime one lunchtime at a time!

Well, I did come home and change my bed on Monday lunchtime. Instead of just sitting on my backside doing nothing! I was at work till 7.30pm being trained. Trained to deal with the cherubs I work with. So when I got home, after having something to eat and drink, it was very blissful getting into a nice clean bed. The bonus being enclosed/encased/snuggled in flannelette. I call them my 'fluffy' sheets. I got them from the old Mill of Dunhelm last year. If pushed, I'd go as far to say this purchase was my. Best. One. Ever. In. The. Whole. Wide. World. I do not have a working radiator in my bedroom and it does get a tad chilly. I do have a fully operational beautiful coal fire, however it's stuffed full of teddies right now and it's alarmingly close to the bed!  There's also an old pillow stuffed up it to try and eliminate draughts! ( I'd take a photo to show you but it needs de cluttering! ) Oh bugger it, here's my beautiful original fireplace ( LOOK AT THE DUST ) - there was an even nicer one downstairs, but the HG's Gran had it ripped out in the 1930s to replace it with a highly fashionable beige tiled fire surround! The teddies you see are what I've been bought through the years by my Children. BC ( Before Children ) I'd matched the flowers and colours in the tiles with dried flowers  shoved into oasis - what??? Don't judge me. It was the early 1990s....EVERYONE had dried flower arrangements. But then the Uni one arrived. Started crawling. And systematically ripped out my lovely arrangement. It would seem she had better taste than me!! The empty box just needs moving for recycling. I've been taking it downstairs everyday for a week... ( lazy ) and the carrier bags are full of wool! 

 

On the bed is my fully Flannelette duvet cover. It is just to die for. I do not care about what things look like- it's pale blue, my room is pale blue. However, im sure there is a market for a beautiful Duvet cover on the top.......but with a flannelette underside! Sliding into flannelette is like climbing onto your Nanna's lap for a cuddle, when you were about five. It envelops you with warmth and comfort! You do not get that 'OMG it's chuffing cold' feeling when you park your body on a normal cotton sheet that's freezing! 

This post was not originally going to be about my Fluffy Sheet Fetish, it just evolved! 

Here, have a closer look at a 110ish year old tile! 

Yesterday, before work, I emptied the dishwasher and set off another load of washing. At lunchtime ( my lunch break is 12.10 -1.00pm I came home ( arriving about 12.15 ), I peeled the spuds for the Sausage, Mash and Beans tea and I swept the floor. ( I set off back to work at 12.55, I can make the bell if it's as late as 12.57 ). 

Last night I finished work at 5.30 like normal, although we did get an 'early' finish as the last Night Owl was collected at 5.20pm. 

There was no Karate run with the Teen, but the HG did need to put fuel in his workvan ( how cheap is the fuel these days!!! £50 certainly fills the tank a bit more ) 

So....the real thing I was actually going to post about ....( finally ) 

I called at The Burys of Sains supermarket for milk - Yes I know, how did I use the £90 quids worth I bought last time - and I got these bargain cherries! I loves cherries. I bought two punnets. With hindsight I should have bought them all and made Cherry Jam. But I didn't. Healthy snacks for me for the next few days. Such luxury!! 

Today, at lunchtime, I will hoover the stairs. Tackling my laziness and filthy house one lunchtime at a time! I have just dusted that fireplace by the way. Best try and prize myself out of my fluffy sheets and into my work clothes now, else I'll be late!! 

Again a waffley old post of nothingness- I do claim to write about my none adventures! I can not be done under Trades Descriptions! 

What do you get up to in your lunch break? 

Love From 

Rachel *flannelette* Radiostar xxx

Recovering Lazeaholic

Well, yesterday as you may know, it took me an age to get my wriggle into gear. However I did ' TV Tidying' which is a distant relation to my favourite pre Sky plus box activity of Advert Tidying. 

My kitchen floor was decidedly grotty. The 'Bags for Life' corner was getting out of hand. Yes, they do have their own corner of the kitchen, there's that many of them. Seriously, I'm never going to live long enough to even use them all.  

They were evicted. The Hoover tools came out and removed possible Spider activity. The grout was actifizzed and then an episode of Lost was watched. 

Then more actifizz was applied and the whole area scrubbed with a brush! I then mopped with scalding hot water. Came up like new. Of course I had to go watch some more Lost, as I couldn't get to the washer or dryer because the floor was wet! 

The lounge was cleaned and dusted. Barry the budgie, here for the weekend was cleaned. Barry and me had some bonding time. 

Then I had an energy burst. A brief one. 

The Fire was cleaned and laid. Hall, Lounge  AND Dining room hoovered. Kitchen was still a midden but I deserved a rest with a Victoria Wood documentary and a packet of plain hula hoops. 

Then, as I actually had the house to myself for the first time in forever, I could actually watch 

CHRISTMAS Downton. 

Oh it was just perfect. I had a big soppy grin on my face at the proposal and was devastated when it finished. It's toooo long to wait for the next series. 

Dragging my backside off the sofa, I returned to the kitchen. Folded the bagillion BFL and stood and admired the clean! 

The rest of the evening was spent perfecting my couch potatodom.  

I did download the 'The Voice'App. I watched, listenened, pressed my red button and filled up my team with the opera singing ice cream seller girl, theAlison  Hammond lookalike, the cute podgy ginger Scottish kid and a fire fighter. Can't wait for next week!! 

Today, I was up with the larks. More kitchen floor was tackled. The wash basket was emptied. Pork chops, roast potatoes, veg and mushroom gravy was made and eaten by 2pm. 

The newly laid fire has been lit. I'm knitting another Teddy as the first one was given to Harry for his 4th Birthday! 

Back to work tomorrow so I'm off for a nice long bath with one of my Christmas Bath Bombs. 

How have you spent your weekend? 

Love from 

Rachel *finally has a clean house* ( well downstairs at least ) Radiostar xx 

Severe Lazybonitis

I have a case of this. Late last night I assertively announced to my filthy house it was going. To. Get. Sorted. Tomorrow. 

It's tomorrow. The wind and rain storm outside woke me at 5.56am. I *should* have got up and made a start. 

I got back in bed. 

It's 8.35am now

I have no spring clean inkling what so ever. 

I'm going to have to bully myself into it. 

Even the promise of singing loudly in the kitchen as I scrub the floor holds no magic. 

I am going to get up soon, only because I want some breakfast. 

I will report back later. 

Love from 

Rachel *lives in a midden* Radiostar 

Back to work with a bump!

Quite literally!
Monday 5th Jan

8.55am gloved up and performed first aid on a small child who'd faceplanted the playground, splitting open his forehead. Blood everywhere.
9.10 dispatched him off to hospital with his mother
9.13 dealt with a very angry little chap who. Was. Not. Staying. At. School -  I knew how he felt! He was calmed down, made to pick up all the chairs he'd knocked over and taken back to class.
9.23 - cleaned sick off a pair of trousers and shoes off belonging to one of the lovelies in my class
9.33 read ch6 of the story to Trousersick child that the rest of the class had listened to while he was being sick . The story is Billionaire Boy by David Walliams. It is hilarious. I had to say the word 'Bumfresh'  a lot!!
Phoned his mum, ( the sickly child not David Walliam's ),  she came to take him home to calm him. He was back after lunchtime totally fine.
10.20 playtime duty
10.30 - put new display up - topic for this half term is Space.
10.45 helped upset child make a cross for the grave of his dead chicken
11.30 - did the class rotas for snack duty, lunch duty and play leader duty !!! This, folks, is a treacherous minefield. It takes me at least ten attempts. I think I've finished, print it out, then a voice will pipe up. I can't do it then I've got < insert a cacophony of child related activities here >. I grimly smile, RIP down the rotas and re jig!

I think I'd ticked ALL my job description boxes by lunch!!

Tuesday  6th January ( saddest day of my whole year, every year )

I covered breakfast club for a sick colleague. So that meant I started work at 7.30am.

In Maths, we are learning Time. The child I was working with declared their legs were too tired to do any work. I sad it was ok, they didn't need their legs to do maths. Another child wrote in their book it was 'quarter past seventeen' and another wrote seven firty free. I despair !

Then it was my small group/pastoral type duties for the rest of the day. There's three of us running Social skills groups, friendship groups and positive people groups.
That went well even though we all kept being called away for needy children in classrooms.

Popped home at 12.15 with my friend, who helped me to take the baubles off my tree.

Bye bye my pretties....

Night Owls was the usual average number of twenty plus cherubs. We are trying to get to grips with the new cashless system of payments in school. The parents are struggling and so are we!! We knew where we were with good old fashioned money! So much brain stress! Got home at 5.40pm.

The teenager had removed the lights off the tree and as a quick tea was cooking we folded away all the branches and put the tree back in its box. The bonus of putting the tree away was that he found a CHRISTMAS PRESENT!! It was for me!! 

From my friend at work. I sent get a photo saying look what we just found!
 She replied that she'd thought it was really odd I'd not mentioned what I'd got! I bet she thought, ' you ungrateful mare'! I opened it - it was a Nigel Slater book. 

It completely made my day!! I fully intended starting to read it at bedtime. But we had to take the 17 and a half year old, 6ft, two belts off a black belt teenager to his karate class first.  Whaaaat??? It's dark out there and he's still my baby. He can't possibly walk.
We did call at Sainsbury's as I needed milk. It was the first shop I'd done since before Christmas. Milk is bloody expensive these days. £90!!! I did get some jars of mincemeat for 5p like last year!! Bargain. Popped them in the back of the darkened cupboard to mature. 
In the haul I bought Davina's 7 minute workout DVD. I do already have her 15 minute one which is good. I'm going to try to do something before work every day. Obviously, my 'something' today is writing this post! ( in my warm, cosy bed!)

My eyes were closing around half past nine and the book remained unread. I slept right through til the alarm went off at 6am. The HG was leaving earlier today so I've already been up, made the lunches, done the dishwasher and got back into bed! I'll have my shower after the teenager today. I don't start work til 8.55am! 
My friend just texted. Yet again, our Euromillions numbers failed to secure us the means to give up all of the above! So I best get my wriggle into gear and see what Wednesday at the Funny Farm holds!!

I neeeed a holiday!

How has your 'get back to normal' gone? 

Love from

Rachel ' bereft of baubles'Radiostar xx

A new creation....

Two little fluffy legs.....

A little fluffy tummy......

Two little fluffy arms.....

A little Fluffy head......

And repeat......

Sprinkle with a bit of magic*......

Ta da!

What shall we call him? I think he's definitely a he. I'll make him a big brother next I think! He only took a couple of hours!

Love from
Rachel *Name that Bear* Radiostar xx

*a needle and some yarn