Monday 26 February 2007

Reasons to be thankful

Ok ok Scotland got beat ( by the Italians, oh the shame of it !) but England got humped by the Irish and you all know my granny's Irish don't you ?

The beautiful son's rugby team came 3rd in their tournament and won the fair play award, and TBS managed to maintain his favoured position of hooker, all good.

Beautiful baby daughter finally passed level bloody 12 and that means no more swimming lessons for her and for me ( In fairness to her - she's managed much quicker than the other 2 but I'm just fed up doing it for the 3rd time )

After Friday's night out, I didn't have to apologize to a single person for my behaviour and yes I was out ( post midnight like a grown up - admittedly unusual for me as I like to get home the same day I left, which is piss poor I know but I am 40 now ) and yes I was drinking I had 1 repeat 1 glass of the red stuff. I felt so good on Sat am and I was kind enough to not fill in all the lurid gaps for the friend who did get overexcited and had their beer goggles on. Smugness thy name is Gwen.

Because I only had 1 glass of the red stuff on Fri it meant I could go out again on Sat, crazy I know 2 nights on the trot !! We went to see The Good Shepherd and I was very thankful I went to the loo before it started. It lasts 2 and 3/4hours ! Christina nearly fell asleep and Jo complained that I had made her see a grown up film and she didn't get any sweeties. I thought it was ok as films go but Angelina Jolie looked stunning.

By mistake someone sent a picture to my phone, technically it was a multi media message - get me ! I don't have a camera on my phone so I didn't even know that I could receive pictures. I have an ancient old Nokia that the Eldest beautiful daughter has cast off ( it isn't even her last discarded phone, it's the one before that !) but I can work it, it's pink and the ring tone is the Sex and The City theme tune, so it stays. I opened it up and there was a photo of a very, very beautiful boy, almost in his pelt, hand stategically placed and a message that read "wen r we goin out ? " Is that how people date now ? I don't know whether to be excited or worried. Incidentally, he looks like the actor in the BT homehub advert all blond and buff, with spiky metrosexual hair, so I have now added him to my list. I've kept the picture and if I'm having a bad moment I look at him and it brightens my day up no end.

Starbucks, the evil geniuses have found a way to make me spend more time and money there, which is quite a considerable feat. They have a new featured coffee called cinnamon dolce latte, I have mine venti skinny and without the whipped cream, it's as gorgeous as the boy on my phone.

Saturday 17 February 2007

Glasgow or Edinburgh

Have arrived back in England after having had my fix of the Mother Country. Visiting friends and family, eating, drinking, shopping and having the luxury of speaking at my own speed(courtesy Billy Connolly) Brought back the pornography of my choice - property porn both the GSPC and the ESPC. I salivate at the thought of schedules.

Spent time in both Glasgow and Edinburgh both this week and in life, conversely I love both. Born and grew up in Glasgow and then from age 21 spent 13 years living in Edinburgh, when I moved there my mother used to tell people " Oh I've another daughter but she lives in Edinburgh" like it was Australia, for the non scots who may read this Glasgow and Edinburgh are really different and sometimes Glaswegians are really chippy about Glasgow being much better and not the capital.

When staying in Glasgow, I drove around near the University, round Kelvin Park, The Kelvingrove Museum and then parked up and wandered round Byres Rd, Ashton Lane etc. The pubs I used to drink in when I was a Student Nurse at the Western Infirmary are still there, Curlers, Bonhams, the Exchequer on Dumbarton Rd is gone though. All 4 schools I attended are no longer there and 3 of them are now housing developments. It was really nostalgic and some of the architecture around the University and Park area is stunning. I absolutely love the blond sandstone tenements and have a real hankering to live in one with a bay window and a view on Glasgow life.

When staying in Edinburgh, I stood on George St at the junction of Hanover St and looked down to see one of my favourite views, all the beautiful buildings right down to the Forth. I love George St. Within a short distance there is a Starbucks, The Living Room, the ESPC and then in an almost unbroken run an LK Bennett, Hobbs and a Jigsaw, how good is that !!!!!

This rambling kind of brings me to the point, I need for my own self to come home and live in my own country and I need to decide where to live. For the very few people who read this and know me they will know that decision making isn't the strongest suit in my skill set. Not to put too fine a point on it I am really crap at decisions whether big or small. If I live in Glasgow I have my family and could afford a nicer house, if I live in Edinburgh I have my friends but a much smaller place. I need to be in a good school catchment area which automatically pushes up the price and I have no liberal wishy washy Guardian reader type angst about buying into a school area. I want the best school for them and if I could afford it I would live where I liked and send them private, but that's not the case. So now comes a year of trying to decide.

A great big thank you to my family for having us to stay and to my lovely friends who made time to see me. As usual I apologize for drinking too much (3 glasses of the red on Thurs ) and the recurring theme of too much wine = too much information. Again I behaved like an over excited child at a birthday party and it is my usual excuse of I don't get out much because of the children and I get overgiddy when I am with the grown ups. So next time when the barmaid asks small or large glass of the red and I look at you to make the decision for me, you may change your mind and go for the small.

Friday 9 February 2007

10 reasons why I'm really happy today

1 The beautiful son is coming home.

2 I am coming home to Scotland for the half term week

3 The Killers are on more4 tonight - Abbey Road Session

4 Dougray Scott is currently on tv in Desperate Housewives

5 Dougie Henshall has also been on tv this week and will be on Sat night in a weird thing

6 I bought the new Marian Keyes book today

7 The Beautiful daughters and I are going out for a pizza after school

8 After the pizza we are going to Starbucks

9 After Starbucks, they are going home and I am meeting Christina for drinks

10 My life is good

Wednesday 7 February 2007

That'll be it then

I have 2 mummies, lucky girl that I am, one lives in Glasgow and the other lives with me. She's also known as Beautiful Baby Daughter.She doesn't think she is in charge of me, she KNOWS she is in charge of me. She controls what I eat, how loud the music can be and what time I have to be in bed.
Getting out of the house requires a valid reason(in her eyes), the fashioning of a cunning plan that MI5 would be proud of, plenty notice and a good bribe. Then comes the interrogation that any secret agent/policeman would be proud of and if I'm lucky the permission for me to go out.
My book group is usually ok, I'm allowed the cinema every other week but if she thinks that my outing might contain the company of a man, the alarms sound and the shutters go down.
My real mummy is an absolute delight and never tries to tell me what to do, she doesn't have to BBD is way stricter than she ever was!

BBD is very concerned about us being healthy, which is a good thing really. She loves these tv programmes about healthy living and she loves the one with the frankly weird Gillian McKeith. She is full of dodgy theories that she's picked up from the telly. She keeps reminding me that my life expectancy is shorter because I used to smoke, and she says it in a tone that makes you think I was on crack cocaine for 10 years after I gave up the heroin. Last night she came down during an advert break and imparted this gem on me

"Mummy, you know you sometimes get headaches ?"
"Yeah"
"Dr Gillian says that's because you drink red wine, if you do, you get headaches "

Not the fact that I am bringing up 3 kids by myself (pretty much), I have the boss from hell, I haven't perfected the skill of time travel allowing me to be in 2 places at once, I have no money, my hair is going grey (so much so that my real mummy has booked an appt for me to have my hair coloured and placated me with "oh I won a voucher in a raffle !!!), my beautiful son is away, my eldest beautiful daughter has me feckin demented trying to find her a pair of black fairy wings and a tiara with skulls hanging off it (don't ask) and my beautiful baby daughter is only happy when I am spot welded to her.

None of that, my headaches are caused by my (not even nightly) glass of the red stuff.
That'll be it then.

Sunday 4 February 2007

Weekend Blues

Feeling very sad this weekend. The beautiful son has gone snowboarding in Switzerland. It doesn't matter which one of my 3 is missing, it becomes eerily quiet without them. I don't like it when one of the chicks is missing from the nest.

Another reason to be sad is the fact we got beat at rugby yesterday, not a good day to be Scottish in England. You do feel such a prat when you have to sheepishly take down your Saltire you were proud to fly just a few hours before. Johnny feckin Wilkinson.

Thursday 1 February 2007

Technology part 2

Whilst rambling on here, I realised the time and knew I was going to miss "Mock the Week" asked EBD if she would tape it for me, response in the negative, she says she can't work the video. Complete disbelief on my part, but realisation of the futility of arguing with EBD and go and do it myself, she's watching skins on E4 and not too happy about missing a peko second of it while I tape MTW. Offer to show her how to work the video in case she wants some thing taped and she looks at me and says "Like I'm gonna need to know that for the future "

Tell me why, I don't like Thursdays

I hate Thursdays, eldest beautiful daughter and beautiful baby daughter both have to be in different places at the same time on a Thursday, EBD at drama and BBD at swimming ( Glory Be there is a God, she the very last of my offspring is FINALLY on level bloody 12) they are at least 20 mins drive apart, so EBD gets dropped of early for drama and I drive as fast as traffic allows to get BBD to swimming lessons, I have to take the beautiful son with me as at 11 he can't be left home alone, this really pisses him off as he knows the computer is free for his runescape habit but instead he has to drive halfway round the city and then wait at the side of the pool for BBD to finally pass level bloody 12. Welcome to my world sonny !!

Today add into the mix the beautiful son getting picked for the school rugby team and playing in a tournament necessitating being picked up at 3.30 pm, the same time as BBD needs picking up from school, this is acheived by me driving to collect TBS and EBD walking to school to collect BBD. His team didn't do too well drew 2 and lost 2 but this rugby malarky gives me the opportunity of commenting on the performance of my son the hooker, words I never thought I'd say or type !!!!!!! He was fabulous and I was very proud.

Also to add to my joy, I had to be at a parents consultation for EBD with my first appointment at 4pm, needless to say the rugby overran and I had to get another mummy to bring TBS home as I had to leave just before the end so I could prove that I really am supermummy and I cope really well on my own to get to EBD 's school. EBD had really great reports but is shockingly bad at algebra, not helped by being totally distracted by 2 mad male pals of hers who sit directly behind her, incidentally she is not having such a distracting effect on them as their marks are way better.

Parents consultation over, rushed home to make tea and then the usual mad dash swimming drama run. Go to pick up EBD's friend as I do the taking and the other mummy does the collecting, and friend not there, gone to parents evening. Realisation dawns that I will have to do both the taking and the collecting and sadness befalls me, I am so looking forward to lying prone on the sofa with a nice glass of (this week I will be drinking mostly...............) Kumala Zenith Vintage 2005 Merlot Pinotage Shiraz. It's very nice, on offer at Sainsbury's half price at the mo. Not as yummy as Oyster Bay Merlot but not too shabby.

Eventually, all the taking and bringing back becomes a blur as I enjoy my nice big glass of the red stuff and I don't mind Thursdays so much now..........