Dad......

Today is fathers day.....I lost my dad 8 months ago tomorrow.

He was the best, kindest, most brilliant dad and grandad ever and nothing will ever replace him....
Miss you more than words can say Dad... x
K
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RIP DAD X 

Shaggy Dog Story ....

On Sunday I went to St Bee's beach in Cumbria with my mom to take Leo for a run on the beach.

You can't let the little bugger off because he'd never be seen again so he has a long extending lead.

He loves the sea and it wasn't long before he was right in there with poor mom trailing behind.

I have a pretty good camera that the Mr bought me for my birthday and I've started trying to keep it with me, fortunately I had it and got some great shots of them both.

It was nice to see my mom so carefree and happy. She's struggled since losing dad and by her own admission has found it hard to move on, but she seems to have negotiated a little bend in the road of late and hopefully her and Leo can build on that.

Leo chased stones, dug holes and generally got into a state but a good hour or so was had by all even if we did bring half the beach back with us !!


K
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France.....part 3

Bonjour

Well finally the last part of my trip to France. You can tell I'm home and have no time again!

So whilst in France we went to the monkey forest just outside Rocamadour and it was THE best experience ever.
We have a monkey forest near to us at home but we have never gone - something I will be rectifying this summer....

The monkeys were all roaming around freely albeit in an area that did have fences but they were not obtrusive at all and the area was very large.
We were asked if we wanted to feed the monkeys when we went in and they gave us some plain popcorn only a small amount each I assume so they don't get too chubby.

The monkeys were so cute and funny and the babies were the cutest of all. One little baby wanted to hold your hand is it took the popcorn - I guess just in case you tried to take it back.
I don't know what it is about monkeys - maybe its because they are so close to us but they were fascinating to me and they seemed fascinated in us but I think the popcorn helped them...lol

There was a really old one whose eyes were all glassy and he looked just like a little old man sat on the wall watching the kids running about like nutters after the popcorn, he really made me smile.

We had a great week in France, as ever and exploring the Dordogne was heavenly and the fields and fields of poppy's we saw were beautiful, we'll definitely be going back again.

On the way back home we managed for the first time ever to get on the outer ring road at Paris with the aid of just the map and my instincts so I never did get that picture of the Eiffel Tower unfortunately, there's always next time.....

Au revoir mon amis ......

K
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Lost In France ...Part 2 Rocamadour

Bonjour mon amis

I'm back again....
This one won't be as long as the last one I promise....

So far we have visited a few sites in the Dordogne Lot area, one recommended to me as a must see was Rocamdour which is a town in the hillside complete with castle.


 So with trusty AA map in hand off we went. I can only say I was impressed with both the drive and the area and can definitely recommend a visit.


We had the choice to park at the top by the castle ramparts or down below in the car park area and take le Petit Train up into the town, needless to say we chose the lower car park and ticket in hand boarded Le petit train for our ride to the top.

At the top we were greeted with a wonderful old street filled with shops selling the usual tourist nick knacks,  Foie Gras which is a delicacy of the area - one i've never tried and I'm not sure I'd like to given the price of it!  Coffee shops and restaurants a plenty mingled in with the odd chocolate shop and clothing boutique.  But the real beauty lay upwards....up towards the sky line. The buildings were magnificent and made up of a collection of church buildings belonging to the sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the castle which sat right at the top overlooking everything else.
Walking over the cobbled streets it was amazing to think that people had been doing that since 1166 - if those walls could talk....

I love history and nothing pleases me more than a good ramble round an old house , church, castle or indeed ruin with camera in hand.
I know England has a fine tradition of preserving old places but no one does a Châteaux like the French.

We wandered around the streets for a while, pain du chocolate in hand, then soon tummy,  then climbed the 217 steps upwards towards the castle buildings. Reaching the top of the stairs we were then faced with a  sloping walkway that criss crossed backwards and forwards rising around 200ft.
This successfully negotiated we reached the top and the castle ramparts, and this is where frustration and disappointment kicked in. The ramparts were accessible but via an unmanned turnstile which was coin operated - something they don't tell you about at the bottom, and as we had only 1 €1 coin on us and the small and very reasonable charge was €2 each we were forced to turn around a amble back down again.
Not that we let that distract from the lovely time we had at all - so just a note to you all if you do ever find yourself assending 400ft up to the ramparts remember to take some change with you !

Fortified with a café au lait we boarded the petit train back down to the car park and set off on another adventure.....

K
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Lost In France ....Part 1

Hi
On Sunday just past we headed off to France on our yearly visit, we didn't come last last for reasons regular readers will know so its been a while.

We like to visit different parts and so this time its the Dordogne - Sarlat to be precise.

We travelled by DFDS ferry which was offering the best deal at the time of booking. what we hadn't considered was the champions league final the night before.....the ferry was full of returning German football fans. Half dressed in bright yellow and the other half in red. All equally loud and noisy, singing , chanting and at one point doing the conga round the boat luckily it all seemed to be in good humour, which was just as well as I was slight hung over from a wedding the previous night and only getting through with Starbucks and paracetamol....  but back to DFDS - we've never used them before and it was perfectly fine although if I'm honest I prefer P&O if only for the on board shopping ! suffice to say I managed to get Calais without buying anything ....which was a shame, because what we really needed was a Sat Nav with France on !!!
We have said technology, but unfortunately Mr a year in the life had not bought that one with him in error and had the UK & Ireland one with him.

But luck was on our side and we did happen to have in the car the trusty AA big road atlas of France that has got us out of many a sticky situation, in fact this was the updated 2011 version bought on our last trip for reasons I can't recall.....


I am an excellent map reader and as long as I have map in hand we very very rarely get misplaced.
This time was no exception and I managed to navigate us to Paris - which given the amount of times we've done it isn't hard at all to be fair, and there the fun started. Paris is a nightmare to navigate, they have a 'peripherique' which is similar to the M25 but not as easy to actually get on , and in France if you miss your turn that's it, you're done for!
I have a pretty good memory and visually if i've seen something before I usually remember it so with that in mind, the map and pure instincts we tried to circumnavigate Paris on what we hoped was a quiet Sunday afternoon....

Half an hour later, a glorious view of the Tower they call Eiffel (camera was in the boot !!! arrghh ) and a few turn right instructions given whilst praying I was correct, we passed through Paris and out onto the other side.

2 hours later we were at our half way stop over at the Auburge á la Tete de Lard in La Ferté-Imbault which was a lovely traditional hotel in a very small village but more than suited our needs for a stop over in a comfy bed with a bottle of beer out of the mini bar.

Luckily the onward journey was pretty much a straight road and at 10am we set off from our comfy stopover and arrived after much beautiful French scenery at our destination La Palombiere campsite at St Nathaléne just outside Sarlat.

I'll post part 2 tomorrow - must dash there's a pain du chocolate with my name on it .....

K
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Fabulous Friday .... Golf, Garcia and Good News ....

Hi there friends...

Last Friday was a big deal for me for a few reasons and I managed to knock quite a few little bits off my buckets list all in 1 day.

Some of them I can't tell you about right now for reasons that will become clear in a few weeks , and the 'Good News' is one of the things I can't share right now,  but stay tuned and an update will follow in a month or so.

Now onto the things I can share...

Golf or to be precise the BMW PGA championship held at Wentworth every May.

As you know I like golf and I'm taking lessons, last year Mr a year in the life and I went for the Saturday and Sunday and watched both days in the glorious sunshine. It was my first ever time at a live tournament and I loved every second. Unfortunately in the year that followed my dad got worse and so our plans to go to Europe for a weekend to watch some more never evolved so that's still on the list.
Anyway this year due to the Mr's own golf commitments and our holiday to France (I'm in the Dordogne as I type) we didn't think we were going to make it due to work commitments and lack of spare holiday days.
Then the unthinkable happened and it was announced the Ryder Cup team that won at Medina were all going to play this year, and that meant one thing to me, and one thing only SERGIO GARCIA !!!!

After 2 weeks of moaning and whining to the Mr the Friday suddenly became 'do-able' and so at 5.30am on  Friday we departed to drive to Wentworth which is about 2.5hrs from us to get there in time to see Sergio tee off at 8.25am. Thanks Kez x

I love Sergio ...literally push the Mr out the way love him and watching him live was on my bucket list ...was.... It's impossible to describe how exciting it was to walk onto the course and towards the 1st fairway knowing I was going to actually see him .....aaarrgggghhhhhhhhhh might go a little way ....and then again not even scratch the surface...

.....and then, there he was, right there, right in front of me, in the flesh in all his lovely dark, brooding Spanish glory and I was HAPPY.

I took lots of  pics of him and have included a few of my faves on here to share with you and plan on going to the golf again very soon ...just as long as my Sergio is playing of course....

K
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Sleep In Rollers

Hi guys
I've been growing my hair for a while now and its starting to get some length in it so I decided to treat myself to some rollers.
I've heard lots of good things about Sleep In Rollers and as time is always an issue to me I figured if I could master these babies then big bouncy hair could be mine.

I ordered them from Very and they came within a few days, as always their service is excellent and I never have a problem with them at all.

Sleep In Rollers claim you can sleep in them and so put th
em in the night before, sleep in them all night with no stabbing yourself in the head and then take them out for the desired effect next morning.

When they arrived  I was excited with the box and they came with 2 pink bags to keep the rollers and the hair dryer hood in.
I opted for the Mega Bounce set which was a set of extra large rollers a set of regular size rollers and a hood that you wear then attach to your hair dryer to set your damp hair.




This was the way that I used them first time. I followed all the instructions and 2/3 dried my hair - put the rollers in and then put the hood on - I can't says its a good look at all and can't believe i've included a picture on here but hey ho !

I found them relatively easy to put in but I think there is a few clips on you tube that give you expert advice on this and I'll be checking those out before I have another go.

I was pretty happy with the results on my own hair but I'd put my clip in extensions in also and they did not curl in the same manor - I realise now that I should have dampened them down a bit so next time I'll know but for this time my hair had quite a bounce in but the clips in's were stubbornly pretty straight.

As I was off to a wedding I decided to put my hair into a loose bun - you know the ones that look effortless but have actually taken 300 bobby pins and 2 hours to get right ....but the next morning my hair sans the extensions was really big and bouncy and I was really happy with it.

I haven't slept in them yet but did try resting my head on the pillow when they were in and didn't find it totally uncomfortable, and I think that my hair may need to be another few inches longer to get the total effect I want but all in all I'm a fan of the rollers and can't wait to try them again.

That last picture is how I eventually went to the wedding....

K
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Spanish Siesta .....

Hola everyone, at the start of May it was Mr 40somethings' 40th Birthday, so he too is now in the cool club.
His 'big' day was on the Sunday before Mayday so we decided to go to a hotel where we could have a golf and spa day. Golf for him (more about my golf in another post) spa for me.

We settled on a nice hotel with great facilities but unbeknown to him I was planing a big surprise. His favourite place is Lanzarote and so after a bit of furtive laptop use and emailing to get him a day booked off work my plan was hatched and a trip to Lanzarote was booked.
His boss even scheduled a meeting for 8.30am on the Tuesday morning so he wouldn't rumble my plan.

Keeping a secret from him for 2 weeks was a nightmare and many a time I nearly let slip when he was chattering on about the weather in Lanz or some other Lanzarote titbit he'd seen on their Facebook page.

I managed to keep the secret right up until the night before when we all went out to Frankie and Bennys for a family meal...his face was a picture , he really didn't believe me until I showed him the confirmation on my phone.
We had a lovely meal at Frankie and Bennys and he had a cake with candles and they did the obligatory lights down staff singing Happy Birthday which he was mortified over lol.

We flew to Lanzarote with Monarch and had a great flight, because we know the place so well we knew that by just after 7pm we would be in the Spanish Square or Pueblo Marino in Costa Teguise with a pint in hand at the bar we call the Euro bar - as the beer used to be a euro - no longer alas - but is actually called Orient Express.
...And that is what happened ....in the bar by 7pm seeing all our old friends who were shocked to see us 'out of season' as its usually Christmas when we go.
We had a fab time - The Mr even got to play golf as I booked his golf clubs onto the flight and I got a day on the beach with my Kindle.
We were there from Saturday early eve until 9pm on Tuesday and it felt like a week, with a 4 hour flight some would say not worth it but as i've proved before a drive to the lakes can take us 5 + hours so this was a dream trip really.

We didn't want to come home and can't wait to go again , our next scheduled trip is December  but you just never know......
And on a final note Welcome to the 40's club Mr.
Come on in its blooming great ...:)


K
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Theres been a murder.....and a near drowning by bubbles

At the end/start of our financial year at work we always have a sales meeting off site somewhere,  we do something fun and different.

We have gone to a golf range before, raft building and climbing, a treasure hunt in a car around the countryside  last year was glamping and this year it was a Murder Mystery night at Caverswall Castle in Staffordshire.

The castle itself was amazing and is one of the oldest in the area and was absolutely beautiful. I think the girls won the bedroom battle as we all got the really great rooms. Mine was the Queens room and had a carved four poster double bed. I really did feel like royalty in there but the best bit was the bathroom....there was an enormous jacuzzi bath in there that i just had to take advantage off....

So after popping in the plug and turning on the hot tap I went off in search of bubble bath from my friend and fellow glove seller Paula.
We debated how much to put in but as a bath is a luxury for me as we don't have one at home I decided lots of bubbles were in order....big mistake....HUGE mistake
I filled the bath up to just over the jet nozzles and turned it on ....I literally turned my back for 2 minutes to put some music on and when I turned back all hell had broken loose.
The whole of the bathroom was full of bubbles over the bath , up to the ceiling everywhere....just what do you do with a bathroom full of bubble.....panic is what I did.

To cut a long messy story short I eventually managed to get rid of 50% of the bubbles and finally got to enjoy my jacuzzi bubble bath.

The evening entertainment was a murder mystery event and we were told to dress in cocktail / evening dress so I wore a black full length Mango dress with a full pleated skirt that I bought from ASOS and I loved wearing it.

This was the dress I wore although its not very visable on the group photo we had taken on the evening.



The actors that played the murder out were really good and we all had an excellent night trying to figure out who actually committed the murder  - our team got it wrong as we over complicated what was in fact a very straight forward issue and there was no twist at the end!
All in all it was another memorable end of year - start of new year sales meeting - I wonder what next year will hold .....

K
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Spa Break

So Good Friday I went to fetch Mom - remember.. ? Road Trip
On the Saturday we went for a mini spa day with afternoon tea at The Telford Whitehouse Hotel .
We went with one of my besties Jo-Jo and her mom who I call Moma Sue.

We were able to use the spa for the afternoon, there was a pool, sauna, steam room and the thing we loved the most the jacuzzi and it was fab we had a great afternoon catching up on gossip and I think mom enjoyed chatting to Jo's mom considering they had never met they got on like a house on fire.

After this we got changed and trooped up to the restaurant for our afternoon tea.
There was plenty of tea and coffee on tap and the waiting staff were really nice but I was a little disappointed in the actual offering in the food department. There were only 2 quarters of sandwiches each which was a little mean we thought. We each had a small choux bun which was more like a profiterole really and the best bit was a big scone which we all decided to ladle cream and jam onto to make up the rest of the poor showing.
All in all we had a nice day me and my mom....

this same week I treated mom to a trip to the hairdressers, we went on a shopping spree and ended up buying the same handbag from Outfit - but it was a bargain in the sale so we couldn't resist it would have been rude not too....

Until next time

K
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