What I've Loved This Week....

... is planning. The plan for moving 2 houses into space currently occupied by 1 quite average sized one is continuing apace. Cupboards have been emptied, the contents have been packed into boxes and transported. The boxes have then been unpacked, moved around, reviewed and left in piles. Some of them have been put in alphabetical order.

A bizarre game of musical cupboards has taken place. The contents danced round until the music stopped and each time one of them was left out. Some cups and saucers lost and are sitting on the dining table.

Most importantly of all, the kitchen drawer has been emptied.

Don't pretend you don't know what I mean. We all have one. It's the drawer where you put things until you need them or until you find their matching bit or when you're tidying away in a hurry. In there, I have found the following:-

• one umbrella cover (umbrella lost approx 6 years ago)
• one eighth birthday candle (son now 12)
• several allen keys (flatpack furniture still holding, mainly)
• one mobile phone charger (phone no longer used)
• one bottle of Tippex
• one tube of glue
• approx 23 loose batteries
• one bank card (approx 6 years out of date)
• several store cards (some of the shops now under adminstration)
• one as yet unidentified object (appears to be something technical, like a bolt thing, with a washer on it. Clearly important and being kept until it's true potential is realised)

I'll be honest, unless the other half was moving in, this drawer and it's entertainment value would have been undiscovered for some time yet. You see, I knew there was an upside!

I'm kidding of course. I can't wait until he's all moved in.

And I'd have done the drawer when I needed a battery for the remote.

But go on, you can tell me. What's in your kitchen drawer? I promise, it's just between you and me.

This Week I've Loved...

... not really a great deal. I've felt out of sorts, a bit fed up, and down in equal measure and consequently the blogging's been all over the shop. I've not gone round and read all your lovely posts as I normally would, I couldn't get the stupid new phone to work properly, the laptop's had a bit of a wibble and I think my knees have entered old age with me tottering along behind at an ever increasing rate.

I'm meant to be on a diet, but I'm so hungry I could eat my own feet. I went out for a drink on Friday and was ridiculously drunk at such an early point in the evening it was like being 15 again. The house is still on the market and I'm thinking of selling raffle tickets to prospective viewers.

I know this mood will go soon, and I'll be the happy, snappy, clappy woman you all love, and I promise I'll be back on Tuesday with a proper blog but until then have a look at these people:-

This week I've loved blogs:- sometimes you know where you are with a blog. There will be blogs about children, about current events, crafts or photography. And some blogs are so delightfully random that you rock up on two consecutive days to find serious discussions about censorship and humourous ones about bed-wetting. It's one of the things which takes me back over and over again to see Heather in Lapland, and I really think you should pay her a visit. Especially now, as she's about to become very famous, and you can say that you knew her way back when if you go now.

I've also come across a blog this week which is new to me, and I can honestly say it contains one of the most movingly written posts I've ever read. I'm not going to make any other comment because I wouldn't be able to do it justice, but I think it would be lovely if you could go and put your arms round Brighton Mum.

It's over to you now my lovely people, come along and make me smile. What have you loved this week?

What I've Loved This Week....

... is old friends. Not of the geriatric variety although we're all of an age that's closer to cocoa than cocaine, and we're more likely to be found in a grubby little local than Whisky Mist (or wherever it is that the young beautiful people hang out.) I don't often get the opportunity to see them much any more - we're all busy people with families and hobbies and work getting in the way, so it's fabulous to see them on an ad hoc evening when a few of us are out and we can reminisce and talk nonsense to our heart's content. And we did. There was drinking, chatting, talk of children, drinking, talk of old friends, anniversaries, drinking, boyfriends, work, drinking, Gunga Din, illness, drinking, crap husbands, holidays and the startling revelation that one of us thinks they're the reincarnation of Ruth Ellis.

It's all included in a night out with me. I don't charge extra for the hangover.

Now I'm recovered though, this is what else I've loved this week...

This week I've loved watching 500 Days of Summer. Oh my goodness, there's a proper film. For a starter, the other half liked it and not just because of the eye candy. It has a great soundtrack (ie it has The Smiths in it), it's a bit of an anti love story, although it's a lovely happy ending (ish), and it doesn't star Jennifer Aniston. I've nothing against the woman per se, but you know what? Have a rest love.

This week I've loved messing about with the blog. I've changed the background, I've messed with the wallpaper, I've fiddled with the side bits and I've tried to understand what an RSS feed is. I've had varying degrees of success as you can see, and I'm still not entirely sure what an RSS feed is, but it seems as though they magically happen and I have one. Why, I don't know, and I'm not sure what to do with it either, but I'm very proud of it. Probably I'll lose it or I'll receive a bill for a million pounds but until then, it's one challenge safely ticked off. Next target:- work out what on earth Google Page Rank means and climb Mount Everest wearing just my pyjamas and my fluffy slippers. Not sure which comes first.

This week I've loved blogs. There are so many great ones and I'm coming across new ones all the time, but I still have my old favourites too. I don't mean geriatric in this case either, I mean a very dear blogging friend who I've "known" since my early days - the altogether too talented Crystal Jigsaw. She's not only a great writer (fiction and blogging), a great mum (read about the Tooth Fairy without filling up and you're a tougher woman than me), a very hard working farmer's wife and a great supporter of blogs - she also (if we're very lucky) posts pictures of puppies. Have a mooch through and you'll see what I mean - tell her I sent you. A blog that's relatively new to me is the fabulous Oh Mammy - for the foodies amongst us, there are some lovely recipes and photos (blogging makes me hungry), she'll tell you all about parenting, she'll share her views in a forthright fashion I adore, and she'll give us all a better understanding of autism. Please go and pay her a visit if you aren't already - I'm sure she'll love to see you!

So what have you loved this week?

What I've Loved This Week....

...is nostalgia. For me, blogging has been a very off and on business, and this certainly isn't the first blog I've written. If you're interested, and you've got a little bit of spare time, then do please go off and have a look at my previous ones - you can find me having a tantrum here, and having it all here (but please remember to come back!)

I often think I was born in the wrong time - in my heart, I know I was meant to be waltzing with a dashing young man who's arrived at the ballroom in a carriage and Jane Austen's chosen me as her main study. Or I'm a lovelorn governess with a crush on her boss. Or Anna Karenina. Take your pick really. It often means though I don't necessarily always grasp the current culture, I'm constantly astounded by fashion, culture and hairstyles, and I'd still quite like to wear a gypsy top. Do you remember them? It's a bit of a sign of age that one.

When I first started blogging, there were only a few blogs I knew about, and there certainly wasn't any sort of network of the same size as British Mummy Bloggers. Well , there might have been, but if they existed I didn't know about them and I probably wouldn't have been accepted as a member. Wife in the North had got her book deal, and some of my Open University buddies blogged if they were doing a Creative Writing course, other than that you just sort of waited for people to find you, and you found them by looking at comments on other people's blogs. And I look back on those days quite fondly, I wasn't aware of it being such a big deal as it is nowadays, and probably we danced in cornfields and the sun always shone as well. And in this spirit of looking back:-

this week I've loved shabby. I came across this gorgeous shop while I was in York, and they do a lovely mail order service. How could you not love this gorgeous santa envelope? Or this beautiful lamp? Or these pretty jugs? Frankly I could buy up half their supply, if only I had the money. (And no, this isn't a sponsored post, they haven't offered me any incentives, I just happen to love the shop.

This week I've loved blogs. One of the first blogs I read in great big huge chunks, and still read now is Big Blue Barn West. Aims has had an incredibly difficult life, she has tales to make you laugh and cry, and she's one of the bravest women I'll ever have the pleasure to read. She's also a very talented crafter and although she doesn't blog as regularly as she used to, she's still a writer who will draw you in to her world. In a bid to look to the new as well, I've discovered a gorgeous new blog called Karen and Nigella. She has the most mouthwatering photographs of food, and she's working her way through Nigella's cookbook. I shall personally be hoping to follow her on the journey, literally if necessary, just to get my hands on some of that food.

So that's me done. What have you loved this week?

Edited to add it's no use at all me telling you I used to write other blogs and then not giving you the linky loo la's so you can have a look at them. I can only apologise and blame someone who isn't me, defeinitely not, no sirree bob.

What I've Loved This Week....

…is punctuality. I think it’s fairly well understood in the blogging world that to build up your readership and enhance the experience for the visitor, you need to post regularly. I’m not sure if, as part of that, it has to be good as well, but it certainly has to be regular. For all I know, you might be able to do a post that’s just your shopping list (and there’s more to follow on that later in the week). Or perhaps you could let your child just bash away on the keys, put that little gem up and call it creative?

With this lesson in mind, I decided to set this blog up with a specific structure in mind; I’d do two posts (on Tuesdays and Thursdays) that was just whatever was on my mind that week, or whatever had got my goat the particular minute I started to write. On Saturdays, I would write a proper mum post – I know sometimes you forget I’m a parent blogger, but I really am, my family are at the heart of eveything I do, and I thought I’d dedicate one post a week just to prove it to you (and me).

The one thing I was really clear about was writing one post a week where I told you about what I’d loved during the week. I’m a really positive person, and I always see the good in a person or situation, but if you read my blog you’ll think I’m a real old whinge bag, so that’s just to remind everyone that I’m really not going after half the population of the known world with a hatchet.

It’s not that many, I don’t have time.

I decided I’d do that post on a Sunday, a nice family sort of day, and it would round the week off nicely. I think that when you start blogging you have to instill some discipline in yourself – it’s all too easy to let things go, not post, and then decide you can’t be bothered to go back to it. So, all in all, I’m really pleased I decided to stick to my routine.

Except, it’s Monday, and I’m doing it today. Because, you know, life?

Anyway, moving along, because we don’t need to dwell on that partiular failing, here we go.

This week I’ve loved watching The Inbetweeners. I’m fairly sure it’s not aimed at my age group, who frankly ought to be watching Panorama and Newsnight, it’s filthy, it’s disgusting, and it’s given me a vocabulary for body parts and intimate practices of which a builder would be proud. It was the last episode this week, but there’s rumours of a film on the horizon, and I’ll be there at the cinema with all of the people who are young enough to be my children.

This week I've loved blogs. I'm really trying very hard to get round as many blogs as I can, but the trouble is I don't want to just have a quick squint at them, make some banal comment and then move on. I like to have a proper read, like you would with a magazine, and then I have a rummage through some of the older posts to see what it's all about and then sometimes I go off at a tangent because they recommend someone else and do you know what people? No time! That's what I've got, no time! I wouldn't want someone to recommend a blog to me on the basis of one post, so I have to make sure you can trust me. First up for blog I've loved this week is the lovely Penny who knocks around at The Alexander Residence. Not only does her blog look great, she's really, really entertaining, she has some great discussion points, and as her daughter's threatening to destroy her vicarious career plans, I think you should all go and show her some love. Secondly, I'm going to take you on a little trip abroad. When I was first a blogger a little while ago, I have to say the Americans really showed us the way with blogging - as with many things they did it bigger and better. When I wanted to read a really funny entertaining blog, I was pointed in the direction of Melissa at Suburban Bliss. She's a blogger who can make me laugh out loud, and then want to cry with her in the space of a few posts. She manages to be amusing even when she's down and she makes you feel better about school holidays with her some time dread of spending more time with her children. Once you read the tagline for her blog (Birth Control via The Written Word), you'll understand exactly where she's coming from, and how we're either going there or have been already.

So there's my little round up for the week - what have you loved?

What I've Loved This Week

Hi everyone! I've had such a busy week, it's all been a bit kitchens, plumbers and complaining, but it's been great fun too! There are so many things I've loved this week but I'll try to give you a little round up of what I've been up to.

This week I've loved reading  The Road by Cormac McCarthy. If you haven't read it already, I'd urge you to give it a try, but it's not easy reading. It's incredibly poetic though, moving and has a desperate isolation about it which puts me in mind of Waiting for Godot (but don't let that put you off!)

This week I've loved watching This is England 86. I know it finished weeks ago but sometimes my V+ is more relevant than the TV listings! I loved the film, loved the series more, incredibly well acted, but again with some terribly sad story lines (and if you're easily shocked, then you might want to think twice)

This week I've loved blogs - two in particular. I've been blogging for a while now and some blogs I seem to have read for ever. One which I absolutely adore (and have done for some time) is Violet Posy. I'd urge you to go and have a look - she's the shabby chic queen and makes me wish I lived in her house, or at least that she'd come and make mine look nice. Her blog's gorgeous and she has some fantastic ideas that I'm sure I'll put my mind to one day...I'd also recommend a visit to a blog that's entirely new to me and that's Kate Takes 5 - she writes so beautifully, she's really funny, and how she finds time to write with her merry little band I'll probably never know. Also, she seems to like a glass of wine, so she's always welcome here.

(PS - I'd just like to say this will be a regular feature, please don't despair if it takes me a while to get to you - I know blogging can be an extremely frustrating business but I promise you're not talking to yourself!)

So that's my week - what have you been up to?