It's Friday (thank goodness)

What a week! The NHS is undergoing a major change in the way people are graded and paid for their job, which means every job has been evaluated and put in a pay band which ultimatly affects how much you are paid. Our bandings were published this week....suffice to say many people were less than impressed with the outcome! Helping people through this change is a bit stressful so every lunchtime I turn to Chrissie's blog for a bit of light relief. (She knows I get upset if she doesn't update every day!) So I was particularly amused by the healthcare stories and although I have never seen anything stuck to someones fluff (go read the blog!) I have seen stuff to make your hair turn (walnut whip anyone??) Healthcare staff often use humour to reduce stress and many of our stories are a bit grim but here is one of my favourite true stories.......We have a red and a green line leading from reception to the various bits of the department. One of the radiographers found a little old lady wondering along the corridor looking bemused. 'Can I help you?', she asked. The lady replied that she was looking for the red dragon she had been told to follow. 'Oh', replied the radiographer, 'do you mean the red line?'. 'Yes, that was it, the red lion', the patient responded in all innocence!

Happy Birthday Martin!

Today my 'baby' is 18 years old (which of course is impossible as I am only 18 myself!)

Happy Birthday son x

Celebrating in style!!

My name's Sue and I'm a blogger, it's been two months since I last blogged...

Oh dear! Doesn't time fly.

Here was I thinking my words just fell into the openness of cyber space and yet I have apparently been missed.

What the heck have I been doing then....well, work is mad, mad, mad. We opened the new orthopaedic centre and the MRI scanner.........

(This is the first patient in our new scanner and Tony the MRI Superintendent)

I went to Scout Camp in Gilwell....

(kit inspection underway)

I created my class LOs for Scrappers Unlimited Gloucester 2 retreat........

(Can't show you those!)

I have been to Scotland with the family on holiday.....

(we stayed at the lovely Gretna Hall hotel...see they laid out he red carpet for us!!)

So I have been very busy, honest, but I promise to do better - no really!

Free at last! Free at last!

I have gone wireless....no wires at all......so I have been able to enjoy sitting in the garden surfing the internet - what a wonderful thing! Of course it has been too darn hot this week to sit in the garden. My Mum would always sing 'We're having a heatwave' when it got this hot......as kids of course we had no idea of all the lyrics changing the words we couldn't remember. So I was surprised when I checked it out! (loving verse two).

We're having a heat wave,
A tropical heat wave,
The temperature's rising,
It isn't surprising,
She certainly can can-can.

She started a heat wave
By letting her seat wave
In such a way that
The customers say that
She certainly can can-can.

Come on then - let's see you all shimmy like Marilyn!

Quiz:
1. Who used the phrase 'free at last!' in a famous speech?
2. In which musical will you find the song 'Too darn hot'?
3. Who wrote 'We're having a heatwave'?

OK, so you were right!

I have been nagged into updating my blog as it has been stuck on 'it's raining' for 3 weeks! We have been basking in the glory of sunshine of course. It has been fab BBQ weather..and the garden has seen much attention (mostly from Neil I have to say)

But the very best things to come from the garden (well, the greenhouse if you want to be accurate) are these....

I have just taken this picture of the bowl full of home-grown strawbs ready for us to eat. I love June!!

It's raining again!

Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck! That about sums it up round here today.
Still dull weather is ideal for making rubber stamps with my new stamp making machine thingie (http://www.imagepacdaylight.co.uk/html/imagepac_daylight.html) This wonderful thing of beauty allows you to make your own rubber stamps to your design and for a fraction of the cost. It works using light so it's better undertaken in a dull room. Fi says I'm the gadget queen which is about spot on! I am a real technophile and love stuff like this. I will post a picture of my attempts later. I must thank the photocentric guys who went out of their way to make sure I got my kit sorted out.

This afternoon, however, we are off to see the Harlem Globetrotters at the CIA. We are taking Neil's Mum with us. It is a long story but basically she missed out on seeing them 50 years ago and we surprised her with a ticket for Christmas....so after a very long wait she is finally going to see them. I'll let you know how we got on.

We're almost off!

Just had a chat with Chrissie as we are off to Bonza Baby in the morning. We both feel really weird not bombing around panicking that something will be left behind. (Does panicking really have a 'k' in it?...the more I look at it the more incorrect it appears!) Anyway, I have packed so little to take that I am sure I must have forgotten something.
It will be fab to be a delegate rather than an organiser and I am looking forward to learning something new....and shopping....and eating....and chatting.

This kid is awesome!!!

Martin found a video clip of this guitarist - fantastic!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akdEODUdU08

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

Isn't it lovely !!!! I was so concerned being stuck in the office all week and occasionally getting a glimpse of the sun that it would all be gone for the weekend but no, there's plenty left!
I spent four hours weeding and cleaning the front garden yesterday and filled two bin bags full to the brim. I borrowed Martins ipod and listened while I weeded - he has a different taste in music to me in some ways (I do not like Iron Maiden or System of a Down!!) but I quite enjoyed The Offspring, Sum41, Queens of the Stone Age, even a bit of Metallica. Martin drums in a band of school friends...Der Stukas...they recently played a cover of the Artic Monkeys at the school Eisteddfod to great acclaim. Martin is now known as 'the drummer' amongst the kids at school!

For all you freestyle lovers

Look what I found at http://www.autumnleaves.com/freestyle/

Are you drooling yet?

Catching up

Goodness hasn't time flown! It doesn't seem five minutes since the beginning of April and now May is round the corner.

We had a fab break at Easter, I combined the bank hols with a few days off and we bummed around for a bit taking the opportunity to visit one or two places.


I have wanted to visit Stonehenge for such a long time. The last time I went was in the 70's - in those days you could clamber all over the stones. These days you have to admire from afar. I was shocked how small it was - don't get me wrong it's a fantastic monument but I had remembered it as much larger (OK I was much smaller in the 70's!!)




We also took the opportunity to visit Raglan Castle - it is amazing we have such fantastic places on our doorstep and we never see them. We followed it up with a delicious lunch in The Bear in Crickhowell - recommended!

Yippee! Spring Holidays

Another excellent retreat draws to an end, Crickhowell was beautiful, the food was great, the company fun, and plenty of shoppng too! I enjoyed all the classes I took, but as usual did very little scrapping of my own - where does the time go?

I did take some time out to walk round the Manor Hotel...look what I found!

Signs of Spring

Spring is sprung...at last! After weeks of freezing cold weather which I thought would never end, Spring has finally arrived. It is fantastic to see the flowers in bloom again. There are however three rather strange plants emerging from the cold ground. I have no idea what they are - though I am sure we planted them last year. Time will tell no doubt!
We decided to pay a visit to Southerndown beach this morning. The wind was whipping up a treat. I have never seen the sea that rough at Southerndown. Which made me feel all the more sorry for the poor souls on the river for the boat race. Poor Cambridge - lost again!

Just chillin'

We have friends staying this weekend, the 'boys' are spending the day in the local hostelry and I have been doing not a lot. I am trying to avoid the feeling of guilt that I am not doing 'something' by pretending to be busy. I have sent several hours on the internet this afternoon, and I am just off to finish my entry in the Christmas CJ. Found a great website with lots of useful scrapping advice at http://www.scrap-poodle.com/scrapmentor.asp - worth a look for design tips and some great links to LO sketches.

Neil was so funny last night. Not that I would encourage binge drinking because I hate it if he drinks too much but it is fun to get him to do silly stuff when he is a bit more than tipsy. I was persuading him to test how drunk he was with a series of tasks. He managed to do the pigeon step walk without difficulty and he had no trouble touching the end of his nose with his finger, but he could not stand on one leg to save his life and when he collapsed in a heap over the bedside cabinet I was absolutley weak! Now that picture would have been worth scrapping!!