Evening Tanya, been a while

Well it has been a while (since blogging and since watching Lock Stock) - and writing this is about the only time I have had to myself since then.

The household chores are finally finished (for now). The bathroom is almost done (except the ceiling and window frame - which can both wait), the spare room no longer has a hole in the wall (from fitting the sink waste in the bathroom) and has been completely redocorated. And in record time I think - 4 evenings to strip the old wallpaper, put up the new (fibre-galss) wallpaper and give it three coats of paint. It was finished literally hours before my parents flight touched down - thankfully the smell of fresh wall paint doesn't bother them.

Spent a wonderful week with my parents, took some real time off of work - haven't read a single email in the last 8 days and won't until Monday morning on the way to the office. We didn't do anything special (except for a meal celebrating my other halfs birthday with her parents as well - first time both sets of parents have been together since our wedding day I think), just spent a few days together. Was quite sad when they took off again to go home. I thinkt the best thing was to see just how well my dad looks after his heart attack 10 weeks or so ago. That has put my mind to rest quite a bit.

After the failed shopping trip a couple of weeks a go I finally found a black dress that I liked (and fitted my rather limited budget - hurrar for H&M, they had lots). Was interesting buying it though. I was shopping with my other half (she was looking for jumpers, me a dress) and she surreptitiously, whilst "checking" the label, held it up to check the size. I have to say that was the least enjoyable part of it - size 44 in order to get a waist of the right size. And yet I can get away with skirts of size 40. Hopefully I can pull it in a little if I lose a little weight running...

Well... I think that is my head emptied again, and I need to start my studies - going for an MSTS DBA exam in the new year and have yet to actually start the training book.

Another Failed Shopping Trip, More DIY

Every week we get billions (OK English exageration a little there) of leaflets through our door from the various shops in the town center. We normally flick through all of them just to see if anything catches our eye - and every few weeks there is something.

This week we found two things, in a shop we would never dream of going in. A jumper for my other half, and a little black dress for me.

Whilst she really did not want to be seen in the shop (it's mainly used by the winklies, not 30 somethings) she really liked the jumper so we went looking.

First off, once you walk in the store you *really* see that it caters for the older generation - I've never seen such a drab shop outside of 'Mary Queen of Shops' on TV. Secondly even though I was with my wife, and shopping for her as well as me, I got a major bout of nerves and could hardly look for either item of clothing...

We found her Jumper, but as the only size they had in stock was XXXL we decided that maybe we'd leave it. The dress (whilst in the shop window) wasn't even in the store itself. When you look at the customers they have you have to ask why they would even stock either of the items - I can't imagine any of the other customers in there buying them.
Fubar :(

We are supposed to be tryin again in other stores this week (but I'm not holding out much hope - little black dresses are not as easy to find as I imagined...)

On top of that we have sooo much on our plate at the moment. My folks are coming to visit soon (read in days) and at present the spare room doesn't even have wallpaper on every wall. Why on earth I decided to try and get it decorated in a week I don't know. I spend literally years thinking 'That room really needs doing', and then with less than 7 days until it is to be used suddenly get the compulsion that it has to be done now...

As such I am covered in glass fibre from the wall paper that has gone up (I've never seen glass fibre paper before, but it does give a nice finish on the wall for paint - without having to pay someone to plaster the walls) and absolutely shot - work 9 hours (full of stress at the moment) followed by 5 hours of decorating every day is not healthy. Good job my folks are here next week - I'm on vacation for when they are here and can hopefully recover a little...

Thank goodness that weeks over

It's been an absolute nightmare of a week... After getting the bathroom finished we now have to clean the dust from the rest of the house.

On top of that I had a stinking cold that hasn't completely gone yet, and shows no signs of dissapearing yet (the sniffles and sneezes are over, but the lathargicness etc stays).

Then there is the fact that this week we had one day out of 5 when we were in home during the evening. So we also had a rather lack of sleep...

Then there was work... I have a number of high prority projects at the moment each vying for more of my teams time than I can give. No matter what I do I lose... Some part of the business complains that IT is not giving their project the attention it deserves. By the end of Thursday I was mentally and physically exhausted - and well aware that I had another day to go which was going to be even worse.

The cleaning of the house happened over the weekend as we had my sister in law (plus the rest of the family) coming over for food (and to look at the new bathroom) and had yet to finish cleaning up from it being fitted. *And* one of the local stores had an offer on some furniture we wanted (55% discount) so we had to get that, which involved me putting it all together Saturday night (and it all had to be sanded and waxed before I did it).

We still have a few jobs to finish, and a couple of big jobs to start - I'm just trying to work out when they have to be done so I can try and get some rest before it all starts again. As my folks are coming over for a weeks stay I think that at least one room is going to have to be redecorated before they get here as they would like somewhere to sleep.

On the bright side it all gave me something to write about :)

So very tired...

Well after two weeks of hard graft, ruining my hands and having to put up with my brother in the house (though to be fair the last was not as bad as I was expecting) we have a bathroom back again. And not just any bathroom, but an amazing one. Hats off to my bro - he's done a stunning job and left me with something looking like it came from a lifestyle magazine. We just have to keep it that way now :)

I've just emptied the camera of the last pics rebuilding pics, with some shots I took today with it being finished. I was checking them on the computer and got back to the before shots. It's impossible to imagine that they are of the same room. Of that one of the reasons we brought the house was because of the bathroom.

On top of the two majorly stressful weeks (or maybe because of that) I have spent the last two days with a stinking head cold. It started Staurday afternoon - I got very tired and drained - and by Sunday afternoon was sitting with a tissue stuffed up both nostrils as it was easier than constantly blowing it...

I'm over the worst of it now, but still ache and have a thick head.

Ergo... Another short post. Last week was writers block and this week it's simply that I am too shattered to try and write. Wish me luck for next week.

Another Week, Another Title

Just a quick post this week, to make sure I keep up the habit.

It's been a rollacoaster week. The grandmother of my wife passed away, the funeral was yesterday. It was as bad / good as expected. Some people said some really nice things and I think that as well as the sadness there was also a lot of happy memories that people shared.

In between consoling my wife I've still had to keep working and slogging away in the bathroom helping my brother finish on time.

Add to that having to shower anywhere possible (at work, realitves or neighbours homes) and we're shattered. As the bathroom should be finsihed in a few days I hope life can get back to normal as soon as possible.

One last (happier) thought before I go... How do you complement a girl on the way she dresses without seeming like your (a) interested (I'm not) or (b) way too interested in womens clothes (I am :) )

Ouch!

Well what do you know... More than a week without a post and then two in one day...

I just wanted to post this for two reasons...

One to say how do you mix crossdressing and DIY? (Not at the same time I have to add) I've just removed most of my knuckles removing tiles from the bathroom wall and left my hand that rough that I'm worried if I put anything other than 60 deniers tights on I'd rip them to shreds in seconds if I tried to put them on now :)

The second... Slightly more thought inducing. I have a colleage who I get on with very well. Most of the time. But over the last week I've taken to eating salads for lunch. Partly because I was bored with sandwiches, and partly because I want to loose weight! This guy now spends a few mins each lunch telling me to get some testosterone instead of eating this womens food. What can I say 'little does he know.' But, I have to say it also winds me up to some extent - but there is nothing I can say about it. I certainly couldn't tell say that to him :)

Anyway... That's all for now... Not trying to be negative here - still shining brightly for now.