Mrs Badcrumble's Diary

Finally a bit of summer sunshine.  And i'm stuck in the office all day. boooooo.......

The murky River Forth is twinkling away as best it can outside the office window today, lovely.

Still not finding much time to blog here.  Struggling to keep up with studies aswell just now and my head spins to think about it.

Anyway, I successfully shed the 2 lbs i put on last week when i weighed in on Monday so that was a bonus.  Had quite a busy weekend this week.  By the time I get the housework up to date on a Saturday it was mid afternoon.  Alister had played on his own in the garden all day, bless him, and Abbie over the road was having her birthday party and he was dying to go over.  It was all screamy little 6 year old girls along with a bouncy castle, a DJ, a face painter and enough food to feed a small army.  Sorry but would a bunch of 6 year olds have staged mutiny if they had a CD player and a couple of pizzas???  Possibly out to impress the other parents more than the kids?  Oh i'm a cynical old sod!

Anyway, George & Marion's grandson Calum was round in the afternoon so Ally had a pal to play with.  Abbie's mum brought the boys over some party food and they got a go on the bouncy castle when all the girlies had left so that was nice of her.  (Still OTT though!).  Anyway, once that was over I got an hours studying done before Niki and Mikki arrived.  It was lovely to see them, not long til the wedding either!  Once Al was in bed we had tea and a few bottles of wine and a good natter.  On Sunday Al went to get his hair cut and N&M went to Ednburgh to get Mikki's kilt.  Al has such a gorgeous do now!  Still long but tidied up.  He's like a wee indie rock boy and asks me to put wax in his hair in the mornings!  OOOOO so cute I could just eat him!  After that Martin, Alison, Georgia and Grace arrived. The kids had a ball playing together, wish they could see each other more often.  They made a stage (out of toy cars!) in Al's room and put on a Scooby Doo show for us which involved nothing to do with Scooby Doo apart from a stray dvd lying on the floor!  They put no music and jumped around dancing together.  GORGEOUS!  They coloured in pictures and stuck them to the wall with blu tac which had to be rolled with a rolling pin (?????).  They left and about an hour later N&M arrived home.  We had steak pie, mash, gravy and veg for tes, then vanilla cheesecake.  Dee-lish even if I did make it and say so myself!

So it's now Tuesday.  At work, just about to have lunch and try and get a half hour studying done.  Sigh.....  If anyone has a meaningful 'compare & contrast' type response to this I'd be very grateful.  I am comparing and contrasting the development of Eliza Doolittle from Pygmalion and Antoinette from Wide Sargasso Sea.  AAAGGGHHHH!!!!!  I just cant get enough time to have a good attempt at it.  Well, not without falling asleep over my books.  Not the best way to write an essay...

Now, cheese and ham roll for lunch, yum!

Hope you are all well.

Love ya.
Jill
xxxxx

I have been somewhat neglecting my duties as daily blogger recently.  Working full time and doing all my mummy/housey duties when I get home is really creeping into my Me time!  By he time we get home, get Al sorted with supper, bath and bed, then me fed and cleared up and ironing done etc i havent got the energy to switch on the PC to write anything.  But I have 7 mins left of my lunch break so here goes.

I did, as predicted, put on 2lbs this week after the birthday indulgence fest.  But I am sitting having a big box of fresh fruit for lunch and am working very hard to shift some lbs this week.  Oh, thank you for my cards and presents.  Birthday was very low key and I had a few sad crying moments but that's the first one without my dad done so onwards and upwards.

Still loving where I work.  Nice crowd, lots of boys and laughed so hard we were all in tears yesterday.  lovely!

Outside my window here today I can see a submarine, a 150ft super-crane and a battered looking battleship.  Couldn't say that at BNY!  It's freezing today.  Who do I write to to complain about the shocking weather?  Mind you, at least we don't have those horrendous floods.  It looks hellish and my heart goes out to all those affected by it.  Stay strong folks.  It all has to go away sometime.  Then move.  To a house on top of a hill preferrably.  I reckon hill-top houses are set to rocket in price.  You heard it here first.  Peppa Pig and her lot have the right idea.

2 mins of lunch left.  Tucking into my box of melon, raspberies, blackberries, strawberries and peaches but someone sitting near me had tuna and pasta and it smells gorgeous! 

Right I'm off.  Will hopefully write again before the week is out.  Must Try Harder!!!

Big love
Jill
xxxxx

So glad the weekend is here after working all week for the first time in about 5 years!  On Friday I went out for birthday lunch with my mum.  Went to the new Dobbies in Dunfermline which doesnt sound very great for lunch but it was splendid!  Then went DVD recorder shopping.  Got a Philips one in asda for £99 and its lovely.

At night, Fi came over.  We did wine, pizza, chicken kebab (extra chilli sauce purleeeease) and chips all delivered by the lovely hot delivery boy.  I was on the phone to my brother Ross when he came but still managed to catch a glimpse of him whilst Fi paid!  Ummmmm, had a lie in today then went to my mate Jackie's wee boy Jackson's 5th birthday party.  It was pouring rain when we left so jumped in the bus and came home.  I spent the aternoon drinking coffee and studying Pygmalion and Al watched Chicken Little a couple of times.  Had Dominos pizza for tea, watched Dance X with Alister prancing round the living room then packed him off to bed.  he is actually very good at dancing!  Have convinced him its not just for girls so if he wants to go to classes one day he wont be freaked about being called names!

Tomorrow the Sky man is coming to fix our knackered digibox and we plan to stay in our joggers al day and veg.  And i need to do more studying - Wide Sargasso Sea tomorrow.  but for now I am drinking red wine, eating a chunk of M&S party cake and wittering rubbish as usual.  Not expecting to lose weight this week but will make up for it next week.  Have been feeling pretty poo this week and my night time eating has started up so I need to get that sorted.  think it's just cos it's my birthday and my dad's gone and i'm stressed out about working all the time and Alister being so tired being at nursery full time... and well just lots of stuff all together.  But it will all pass and i'm sure tghis time next year I will look back and laugh at myself for being so stressed by it all!  As long as I can keep finding an ounce of positivity and a glimmer of a smile then everything will all be just grand.

I bought the Lakehouse on dvd today, think it was Niki who said it was a good weepy film and I feel thats just what i need tonight.  A few wines and a bloody good cry over a soppy film, lovely!!!

Lots of smushy love to all of you.
Jill
xxxxx

My god i'm tired being back at work again. So glad something came up but alister and i are both up by about 6.30 and not home til 6pm.  We are both tired and grumpy!  I've not really been in work properly this year so far so was getting used to getting up at 8.  It's my own lazy fault!

Anyway I lost another pound this week so thats good.  Can't wait til the weekend, Going out for lunch on Friday with my mum then I am having a big chicken kebab with loads of chilli sauce on friday and plan to have lots of birthday wine with Fi and Karen.  Then on Saturday Alister and I are having pizza and birthday cake.  Unfortunately my Sky box and my DVD are both cream crackered so might go and buy a new DVD player with my birthday cash. <rushes off to look on ebay!>.  The Sky man is coming on Sunday.

I wish I could write more but I really need to go to bed!  What a lightweight!  Still got to make my packed lunch for tomorrow before i can hit the hay. 

Night night all.
lots of love,
Jill
xxxxx

had a busy weekend and from tomorrow I will be working full time so best get my head down soon.  Haven't had a very good week foodwise, mainly due to not planning meals etc so wouldnt be surprised if I put a lb or so on this week.  Just did a bif tesco online shop tonight so i know i will have a house full of fruit and veg to eat this week so should be better.  Also have some odd girly medical things going on which is very odd and i feel like i am retaining enough water to fill Loch Ness.

We ahd a great day out at the safari park with Alister's nursery on Friday. hectic but good fun all the same.  We got back about 4.30pm and we somehow got home, made a picnic tea up, packed a case and were on a bus to Dundee by 5.07pm!  tremendous!

The golf Open is on in Carnoustie just now, not far from Dundee.  George Clooney is renting out a big house in Broughty Ferry just now which is where we went on Saturday afternoon.  Apparently he is there to go to the golf.  I'm not buying the whole golf thing.  It's blatantly obvious the man is stalking me.  It's a real drag.  He just won't take no for an answer.  Ah well, it's a cross I have to bear.  Hopefuly he'll get bored soon and move on to some other poor soul.

Went shopping in Dundee with my mum this weekend too.  Got new jeans and a top and new Birkenstocks for my birthday.  smashing!  Hopefully Alister will get me Waterstone's vouchers cos I have a reading list as long as my arm for my next Open University course.  Fortunately they are pretty much all classic novels and are only a few quid each but I just checked online and they still add up to about £50 worth of books.  Fabulous!  I love the thought of spending that much money on books!  Can't wait to get onto my next course but I have to knuckle down and finish my Humanities course first but I am bored with it.  Need a burst of inspiration.

Right I am off for now.  Dreading the sound of the alarm clock going off at 6.10am tomorrow morning...

Big love,
Jill
xxxxx

Yes the delectable guitar god that is Richie Sambora has reached the ripe old age of 48 today.  God love ya Rich, keep on rockin!  And of course, the answer is still Yes when you get round to proposing...

Started my new temp job today.  Many many thanks to the lovely lovely Caroline Jamieson for making me feel like I had been there for years within the space of a few hours!  The place is really calm and laid back but still gets through an incredible amount of work every day!  I am involved in the travel/accommodation side of things and really enjoyed all the wee jobs I had to do today.  My day went like this...  Peeled Alister out of bed at 6.30am once i was washed, dressed and presentable.  Al had his brekkie and watched tv for a bit whilst I sorted my hair etc then had my breakfast.  At BNY I used to have my cereal at my desk but not cheeky enough to do that on my first day!  We left the house about 7.10am and got the bus up to nursery.  Were a bit early but better safe than sorry!  Dumped Al and headed back to the end of the road to get the bus to the dockyard.  Had a lovely bus driver who assured me he would chuck me off the bus at the right stop and he was good to his word.  A few of the bus route roads are closed just now but he showed me where I will get on and off the bus when the roads open again.  Lovely man!  Anywaythe dockyard is like Fort Knox.  Serious security going on which is nice.  I was met by Caroline, spent a bit of time filling in a few of the 3 million security forms.  I have to be Counter Terrorist Checked, brilliant!  I feel like I am working in CTU and Jack Bauer is going to pop up behind me whispering something about him having to 'go dark'.  Ha, in my dreams! At 8.45am Lynne took me down to the Acetech building where I had to have an induction.  I now know all about safety on scaffolding and welding and ladders and nuclear areas and ships and subs.... all very alien.  But I beat all the boys in the end of session test. HA!  Oh, thats the odd thing about working there.  In every job I have had there tends to be lots of women and a few blokes for good measure, probably why I have always been very aware of bitchiness and cliques at work.  But at the dockyard it's very much a male majority with a few girlies working in the offices.  Probably why there was such a more relaxed vibe going on.  Really nice.  Anyway, after the induction Lynne had said she would be about half an hour late to come back for me (security, security, security!) so Colin the training guy made me a coffee and we chatted about Big Brother for half an hour.  Top way to spend some time at work!  Headed back to the officve with Lynne and before I knew it it was 12.15 and lunchtime til 12.45pm.  Lynne and Caroline were going out for a couple of smokes before they ate their lunch and as it was a nice day i went out with them for some air.  had a good yap, back to my desk, ate my lunch and got stuck into some invoices. Caroline's boyfriend was picking her up and she said they would give me a lift hom - sooooooo kind!!!  See, lovely lovely caroline!

Got them to drop me at Asda, grabbed some pasta for my tea and went to pick up Alister.  They had Zoo-lab in today (http://www.zoolabuk.com/index.html) and he was so excited telling me about it all.  They had a snake, a cockroach, an albino rabbit, a millipede, a tarantula, a giant snail and goodness knows what else.  Ally was a bit disappointed at the lack of lions but i'm sure we'll see them on Friday at the safari park!

So it's now 8.30pm-ish and I am knackered. Going to make my lunch for tomorrow then have another early night. So glad I am only working 2 days this week, next week is going to be a killer!

Lots of love to every one of you,
Jill
xxxxx
yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn 

Sorry i have been so rubbish at updating this blog recently, still feeling a bit ropey following that bout of tonsillitis.  Have a horrible cough I can't shift and feel really exhausted all the time.  Am missing my swimming lots, Might have a gentle swim tomorrow when I come back from yet another meeting with BNY.  Appeal hearing #2.

Before i go on about me, me , me I want to say I am thinking of you and your mum Niki.  I can't believe she is going through all of this again.  If you need me to do anything weddingy to take the pressure off just say the word otherwise if you want to phone and get cross about it all or have a good cry then I am available for all emotional outbursts.

Next on my list is Ms MacKinnon.  I know you know none of it is your fault really but I hope having the weekend in Cardiff, probably doing some quite filthy things!, has nudged any guilty thoughts out of your mind.  If you guys had still been together it could have been you in that hospital bed for god know's what.  He might not be the guy we once all knew and you loved but he is still an intelligent adult and has made all of these choices for himself.  Chin up girl, as Granny Green might say accompanied by a kiss on the head!

Right, now...... ME!  Oh a belated RIP to Tuck the fish.  He has joined his mate Ming Ming in the great U-Bend in the sky.  Alister noticed they were both gone after about 4 days....

Today has been good.  After losing 7lbs when I had tonsillitis I expected to put a pound or 2 back on this week but I actually lost 1lb.  yay!  I have lost 1stone 1lb now as well as 4cm from my bust (like you'd notice...), 5.5cm from my waist and 4 cm from my thighs.  cool for cats!  The other wee bonus was that I got a temp job.  SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO chuffed!  I have been starting to feel really disheartened by all this 'over-qualified' shit.  I just want a job!  Anyway, Angela from Orion in Glenrothes has hooked me up with an administrator job with Babcock at Rosyth Dockyard.  Working 8.30-5 Mon-Thu and 8.30-1 on a friday.  nice!  Pity it's full time but it's not forever and it will pay the bills until I can sort myself out with a decent permanent part-time job.  Be gone from my door for now Mr Wolf.  The nursery have been really accomodating and Al is going to start full time next week.  I hate leaving him there full time but i'm sure he'll love it and better that he is in full time nursery care than us have no food!

I'm watching Honey, We're Killing The Kids just now on BBC3.  I think some of those parents should be locked up for child abuse.  This woman has lost her mum and her husband recently because of them eating badly yet still fills her 8 year old with deep fried lard.  Well, as good as.  The mum has tantrums, the 8 year old has to look after her, she just told her mum she feels like she lost her mum as well as her dad cos her mum is so different since her dad died and what was her mum's response?  To throw her cup of tea across the room and storm out in tears.  holy crap.  That poor wee soul, what sort of life is she going to have once the cameras are gone if that's what happens when they are there???  Alister - if this blog still exists when you can read then I love you with all my heart.  You make the sun shine on our house even when it's dark and raining outside and you make me laugh even when I might feel like crying.  Thank you for being such an amazing happy little soul and for liking fruit and veg and exercise!! xxxxx

Sentimental moment over..... best go and iron something to wear to BNY tomorrow.  Can't really be bothered and feel like chucking my jeans on but better make an effort.  Yaaaaaaaaaaawn!

Big love All,
Jill
xxxxx

Well apparently if you live on ice lollies and rice pudding for a week you can lose half a stone!  Yep, lost 7lbs this week but still feeling horrible.  have a horrible hacky tickly cough and if i walk at all I am breathless and wheezy.  This sucks .

But after a week of illness I have to get back to jobhunting.  In the past week I have been phoned about one at edinburgh airport that I just cant get to quickly without my own transport, 1 working out of Adam Smith college in Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes but same transport restrictions vetoed that one, a full time permanent one in Dunfermline - i will do full time temporarily but nor a perm job.  There is always something to stop me being able to get there!

On a more serious note, Scotland, and in particular John Smeaton the airport worker who tackled one of the terrorists, have coped admirably with the recent terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport.  I don't think any of us ever really thought Scotland would be a target since ummmm well, we are lovely!  Is that reason enough?  Apparently not.  Glasgow airport was open and back to normal 23 hours and 59 seconds after the attack.  But really, hats off to Oor John and his immortal line "if ye come tae Glasgow we'll set aboot ye".  You've had fair warning terrorist type dudes, don't mess with us or you'll have to face The Smeat!  http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=O5y4gKT7bAQ

So, since I last wrote here I have been shopping with Niki in Newcastle.  And discovered it is possible to feel like hell but still have a fantastic lovely day out!  We tried on loads of stuff (and yes, did go back for the first skirt i tried on!) and had a good yap and I almost fell asleep over afternoon tea in M&S but Nik wasn't offended and I managed to perk up eventually!  Got a gorgeous skirt for her wedding, sooo looking forward to it.  Still need to find a top and all the bits but at least I have part of my outfit.  Niki got a lovely skirt too so happy faces all round!  Didn't get my nice glass of wine at the end of it thanks to antibiotics but never mind.

Had a really quiet day on Sunday and yesterday after I dropped Alister at nursery I slept most of the morning.  Think I just needed a good rest to get over this bug.  Alister came home from nursery with his hair thick with suncream as one of his classmates had emptied a bottle of it over him.  Kids are mental.

Back to the job hunting!

Love you all loads
Jill
xxxxx