Goddamn Jinxed Car!!

Silly noises galore from the engine most of the way back to London this morning. Not getting worse and it doesn’t seem to affect the performance but it is a regular tapping in time with the acceleration.

Got back to the house, parked, turned the ignition off. Then decided to move the car so Nick could get out without bugging me.

Lo and behold the car started fine with not a single complaint or silly noise from the engine.

It was fine all the way to dropping Gemima at my sister’s and fine all the way to work from there too.

On a super-crap note however, I did call the garage and they suggested that there might be a little damage from when the car got really low on oil months ago (although the sceptic in me thinks its taken a bloody long time to manifest itself into a noise!).

They think that the warranty won’t cover it either because it’s a maintenance issue not a fault. On that particular note I might add that the car was given a full service when I bought it in December so I would not have expected the oil to have run dry in May with no sign of an oil leak.

Anyhow – the extremely shite news is that it could cost in the region of £600 to fix!

I don’t have £600 to spare. I don't have £600 full stop!

Plus I am supposed to be going to Swanage in a month. Might be hard with no money / car.

Now I’m SO stressed that I actually feel sick and I have no idea what to do.

Can’t wait for this year / divorce / house sale to be over.

Wouldn't it be nice to curl up in a ball and let someone else deal with all this for me! I'd bitch about crap karma but then I think about my relationship with Keith and realise that actually there is a balance and I do have something to smile about after all.

Smelly Candles and Snoozes

Spent the night at Keith’s last night. Didn’t tell anyone where I was going. Just went. Can’t be arsed with the situation at the house at the moment. Constant little digs from Nick because his brother is still staying.

Keith’s room was all lovely and candle-lit when I got there. He’d gone down to watch BB and I had said I would come back down and join him after I’d put my bag in there but it smelled so nice and was so cosy in the bedroom and I just plonked myself down and watched the light flickering on the walls. Next thing I knew Keith was blowing out the candles and turning off the music. I’d completely slept through BB!!

I can only apologise to Keith for being such crap company. I didn’t realise how tired I was until I stopped.

Plus I am stressed. Car was fine all day until about halfway to SWF when it started making strange noises again. Will have to bite the bullet and call the garage when I get back tomorrow.

Bleurggghhhh!!

Have spent a couple of days feeling like crap. Think I have a bug of some sort as well as it being that time of the month.

It never rains but it pours!

Had to go home early yesterday as I was feeling so rough.

And to cap it all, the car continues to be silly!

Early Starts and Silly Cars

Aaron and I ended up staying the night in SWF again.

Got up at 4:30am to drive back to London in time to wake Gemima up and get her ready for the school run.

God - what a silly time of the morning to get up!

Came down at 5am to wake Aaron up only to find him already up, dressed and waiting for me.

Left for London just after 5:30am. Pretty clear run. Car started making silly noises and sounding all tractor-like again on the way back. Its done that a few times. The oil light flickered on and off a few times so I pulled over and checked the oil.

It was fine.

I started the engine again.

It was fine.

God only knows what is going on with the damn thing! Bloody silly attention-seeking car!

Holiday Plans

Aaron and Sam have been hatching plans. After yesterdays trip out to meet Sam's friends followed by the water balloon fight, Sam invited Aaron to come back during the week.

Aaron breaks up from school on Tuesday afternoon so I will be bringing him back to SWF on Tuesday evening!

I am sure you can all guess what a hardship that will be. I get to stay another night with Keith. I am sure I can endure it though!!!

*grin*

Grrrr... Arrrrgh

It's that time of the month again!

Yes - I know thats probably too much information and no-one really wanted to know.

But its my blog - and I'll grumble if I want to!

Yep - I am both hurty and grumbly.

Bath and a back rub sounds good.

Mind you - so does cake and ice-cream.

Oh decisions, decisions!!

Water-Bomb!

So after all the time Keith and I spent making the garden look fabulous and tidy (well - ish) the boys decided it would be a far better idea to decorate it with bits of burst balloon.

By far the best way to do this of course is to fill the balloons with water and chuck them at each other.

So of course this is what they did!

Delightful!

Terrible Two

Sam and Aaron, thankfully, seem to have been getting along very well this weekend.

So Far...

Not really any griping or growling to speak of.

Sam had a couple of calls from his friend while Keith and I were doing the garden and agreed to go and meet up with them. He also dragged Aaron off out with him to meet them, which I thought was really nice.

Certainly seemed to make Aaron's day!

Go Forth and Hoover The Lawn!

Woke up stupidly early this morning to bright sunlight and extreme heat blasting at me through the bedroom window.

Someone else woke up bright and early too and had the brilliant idea of doing the garden!

God knows what he was drinking last night then! Can only assume someone put some "be domesticated" powder in his tea!

Keith busily set to work mowing and strimming the grass at the front of the house while the rest of us pottered round in stunned bemusement at the very unusual sight!

His cry of lament at seeing the baack garden was just too much though so I was compelled to drag on the jeans and get to work too.

Actually it was fun! I am somewhat alarmed to say I quite enjoyed doing the garden!

Yep.

You did read it right!

I actually enjoyed doing the garden.

Now there's a sentence I never would have thought I would come out with in any way, shape or form!

Looks 100% better than it did but still lots to do so I've agreed to pilfer whatever gardening implements I can from the shed at my house and bring them to SWF so we can have another bash at it next weekend.

Oh dear god!

What did I just say?!?!?!

Bored Games

Sam wanted to play Bored Games today so we all sat round for a riveting 3-hour game of Monotony!

I jest - it was of course Monopoly (or should that be Monoploy as Sam is a cheating wotsit!?)

Actually he didn't cheat.

He played pretty well and we all had to concede defeat!

Grumble grumble!!!

Late Night Shenanigans!

Leaping about at The Lodge appeared to have frazzled the boys' brains because they were up for hours after we got back - and there was much banging, crashing, thudding, yelping and giggling coming from Sam's room (where they were supposed to be just sleeping)!

Keith and I gave up after telling them to shut up a couple of times and eventually managed to sleep through the small din.

Turns out they had decided to have a playfight - Aaron using a teatowel and Sam his school tie with knots tied into it!

It would appear much fun and bruising was had by both!

Boys will be boys!

Arizona at The Lodge

Tis Friday night and as usual, Aaron and I trekked through 45 miles of rush hour traffic all the way up to SWF.

Arizona played at The Lodge this evening. Keith has mentioned them several times so we thought we would pop along with the boys and see them.

A bit naughty really as there are rules stating no children after 9pm but we thought we'd be cheeky and chance it.

We did pretty well really. Didn't get busted until ten minutes before the end! I was impressed.

The band was as good as I had been led to believe and we had a great evening - even Aaron was up dancing!

Highlight of the evening - Keith and Sam leaping about to Baggy Trousers followed by Keith's impression of Jagger to some stones track which I have no hope of identifying - not being a huge fan and all that!

Also - this evening I got to meet Keith's friends, Tracy and Bev. Keith has talked about them both so it was nice to put faces to names and really good to meet them (albeit briefly). I'm sure I'll get to meet them again properly in a less noisy environment at some point!

Apologies....

OK... I have been grumbled at by several people now for being such a big slacker on my blog!

I apologise profusely and will endeavour to try and write something on a more regular and frequent basis from now on!

We're All Going on a.....

...Summer Holiday!!!

Yes!! Been such a long time since I've done that!

Keith's mum had booked a caravan in Swanage for her to take Sam and Sophie on holiday for a fortnight in August. Keith was going to join them on the second week. They'd invited me with the kids earlier in the year but I had to say no because I really couldn't afford it.

Got a text this morning from Keith saying that his star of a mum has booked a second caravan for the second week so I can come and bring the kids down too.

I can't express how much that means!

So now the kids and I will be off to Swanage in the last week of August for the first summer holiday we've had in quite a while. We're all really excited about it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been a while...

Been a very long while actually - I've not blogged properly for quite some time.

But you know how it is - when there's been SO much going on, your brain just doesn't want to revisit it all at the end of each day.

I've had a rollercoaster of a couple of months and some days I have felt like my head was about to explode.

In fact on Monday it really felt like it had, because I had one of the worst migraines I've had in a very, very long time.

Divorce is still in progress. He is going from being an arse to being reasonably human (ish). Although in a new development he has now started recording my phone calls with Gemima when I call to say goodnight to her on his weekends with her. He also tries to goad me into saying things that will make me look bad and him look like the poor hard-done-by victim.

Not going to work!

I am REALLY not that stupid!

Did do all the financial forms but his vulture of a solicitor is asking for more info which I really can't be arsed to provide to be honest! I don't see why she needs 12 months worth of bank statements. I haven't been putting my salary into that account for 12 months for a start. Plus its all been done on a voluntary basis and its not even part of a court process (yet) anyhow!

Plus its none of her fucking business!

I am definitely pushing for this house to be sold. Things have got to the point where none of us want to be here - kids included. Far better to sell now, pay off debts, move into council place for a bit until more appealing options can be feasibly considered.

Bastardcard are still bastards and have not resolved the issue at all! Debt collectors are phoning now. Oh joy!

On a positive note - they have managed to sort out the duplicate card and that now has a zero balance so that's one less thing to worry about.

As for the rest of it - well - you know what its like when you have a ton of things to do and organise and you know you should do them quite urgently but you really can't be arsed because it drags you down so far? I have a fair bit of that going on.

All procrastination, I know but nevertheless, I don't need to be continuously dragged down by all this divorce shite.


...and then there's Keith.

Wow - what a doozy of an emotional rollercoaster this last week has been. Not even sure I want to write about it all but I do want to say that fortunately I was able to tell him just a teensy bit of some things I'd wanted to say for a while but hadn't known how to. The other things I needed to say he managed to work out for himself and told me which was SUCH a relief.

He also said a few things that I really needed to hear and which went much further than I had expected.

In terms of our relationship, I feel far more secure and happier now than I have done yet. There's been a really big step forward and its all good.

That part of my life is all really good.

Aaron's been away on a school holiday in Wales since Monday. I have taken a couple of hours out so I can pick him up when he gets back at 3:30 (ish). I've really missed him this week.

For those of you who want to know a bit more about what I've been up to , you can go HERE and read more!!

Yes, I know that was incredibly lazy of me but there's no sense reinventing the wheel you know!

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It appears this little tool does work! And its easy to use!

Hurrah!

Playing with new tools

Am using Windows Live Writer to do this - be interesting to see if it works!!