Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga... Chooo Chooooo!!!

Saturday 24th April 2010 we had a very early start... 5.30am wake up!!!

It was an important day for Duncan (my husband) as he was having the experience of a lifetime with the chance to drive a steam train!

We left for Loughborough at 7am as we had to arrive for 9am, his Itinery for the day was as follows:

• 9am: Welcome by host for the day & meet with other participents to be paired up with for the experience. Lunch orders will be taken & a video highlighting the main driving controls of a steam locomotive will be shown to you & you will be fitted with a smock coat.
• 9.45am: Depart in the diesel multiple unit for route observation trip to Leicester North returning at 10.45am.
• 10.45am: guided tour of locomotive shed & signal box.
• 12.55pm: You & your partner board the footplate of a main line steam locomotive & have the chance to take the controls to Leicester North, sharing the driving on the double track main line returning back at 1.49pm.
• 2.15pm: Lunch is provided on this service returning at 3.28pm.

The weather was on our side & the sun was shining, we went with Duncan's parents & we also took the children for the day too, although the passengers had a lot of waiting as the train drive was just the engine without carriages... I am glad I took 'Breaking Dawn' with me to read!



Just as well the children didn't get too bored waiting, it was also lucky that Nanny & Grandad took snacks with them as the wait till lunchtime was a very long time considering we had breakfast before 7am!


Eating lunch in the train was fun, even if the plates did move around a bit, LOL! The food was excellent which was also a bonus too :)

When we arrived at Leicester North we had 10 minutes off the train to stretch our legs while the steam engine topped up it's water for the return journey... time for me to have a quick cigarette break!


Doesn't Duncan look just the part with his smock coat on, he really enjoyed the day so much that he came home saying he wanted to buy a train!!!

I am so glad that Duncan got the opportunity to do this experience as it was a dream he has had since he was young... I haven't really got any big lifetime experience's I want to try, but I am starting to think if there is anything that I fancy doing before I get too old to enjoy it.

Well I have a few years yet to try & think of a good once in a lifetime experience that I'd like to do, although I am not sure I could top this!

If it was your choice... what would you choose to do?!

Ready for a year of thrills... Well almost!!!

Well we're almost there... just one more Merlin Pass to purchase & we have a year of rides, rollercoasters, thrills & white knuckles at some of the best attractions in the UK: Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventure, Legoland. With access to some great attractions too: Madame Tussauds, London Dungeons, London Eye, Warwick Castle & all Sealife Centres also!

Personally I can't wait as I love the theme parks & this year I am hopefully going to get to experience the rides at Alton Towers that I haven't been able to do yet: Rita, Air & the newest ride Thirteen.

As you can see from the pictures we had a lot of FUN last year, when we first took advantage of the annual Merlin Passes for the very first time... we went to Legoland a whopping 7 times, Alton Towers & Warwick Castle twice, Chessington, Thorpe Park & the London Dungeon once!

You deffinitly get your monies worth & more, with FREE entry to the attarctions & upto 20% off food & gifts... if you LOVE theme parks then you should deffinitly think about investing in the annual passes.

I wonder how many times we will visit each attraction this year & if we'll get anymore trips in to some of the places we haven't yet experienced with the passes? We have done the London Eye before, but I have never yet experienced Madame Tussauds & would really like to do that one!

Rubbish Blogger!

Ok, I am sooooooooo rubbish... I've not blogged in nearly 3 years & I've absolutely no idea where the last few years have gone, I blink & life just seems to fly by at the speed of light these days! I would think that having one crazy husband, one ASD son, one day-dreaming girlie & one very cheeky & mischievious toddler girl might just have something to do with it!!!


So what's happened in the last 3 years then??? Cameron (number one son) was diagnosed with high-functioning Autistic Spectrum Disorder/Asperger Syndrome in June 2009... I always knew something wasn't quite right but couldn't put my finger on it & it was a long struggle trying to get teachers, health professionals & friends/family to listen to me - we got there in the end though, so although it doesn't make living with his symptoms any easier there is a name for it & a reason why he behaves the way he does :)



Hermione (the piggy in the middle) is such a day-dreamer with her head in the clouds, although when the bubble has been burst she is the most loving, caring, wonderfully helpful little girl you could ever wish for & considering she is still 6 she has a lot of strain livin with her brother but copes amazingly well with it all!





Anneliese (the ickle baby) is now 3!!! Where did that time go??? She is the most cheekiest little thing you have ever met, but whatever she does even if she is really naughty you can't help but smile at her as she has the face of an angel but the cheekiest grin ever!!!





I discovered I have a real talent for Cake Baking last autumn, I have always loved cooking & baking but decided to get a bit more creative with it & have a real flare for it now & I am baking a cake of some description almost every week if not 2 or 3 cakes per week... here's a picture of some cupcakes I made recently!!!





We now have a dog, a little West Highland Terrier that we rescued from the RSPCA in January 2009... he is a typical terrier but we love him, he get's into absolutely everything & is forever needing a bath! This is a picture of him with his girlfriend my friends little King Charles Spaniel named Ellie :)





I have put on some weight recently so it is now time to go back to fat club & shift the extra weight I am carrying around, it's not so good when you have lost the weight graduly but then it piled back on quickly & people assume you are pregnant... wouldn't mind so much but I was sterilized when I had Anneliese, so it gets me down a bit :(

Well, that's a quick sum-up of a few key events... I am going to try to be a more active blogger & get this show on the road again :)

Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz, Nasty Little Critters!!!

What did Duncan find in the garden on Saturday??? Well, we believe it is a type of wasps nest, but maybe it's a type of hornet - who knows as we've never seen anything like it!!! I've emailed 'What's That Bug?' to see if I can gt an exact ID on them, I think they may be Paper Wasps - but I am not 100% certain!

The critters that were building it & residing there looked like standard wasps but in reverse, ie: instead of having a mainly yellow body with black stripes, they had a mainly black body with yellow stripes - WEIRD!!!

We got some Nippon nest killer spray from the Garden Center & when Duncan got in at 1am after his gig, he did the task of spraying it in their entrance while they were sleeping - that's how I managed to get a shot of one of them... Funny looking things, aren't they?

I also spotted this strange beetle in the garden, lovely shade of red don't ya think???

Wonder what other critters I'll come across this year in the UK?

Watch this space for more weird & wonderful creepy crawlies...

What a BuSy week...

How busy am I this week??? As it stands at this moment I have the following going on:

• Monday - Bounce Back course after school with Cameron 3.30pm - 4.45pm
• Tuesday - My friend Sam is over with her 1 yr old Freddie in the am, then after dropping Hermione at Nursery at 12.45pm I am helping out at the school for their special fund-raising day 1pm - 3pm, then I go to Slimming World at 6.15pm (I weigh everyone so have to get thee early)
• Wednesday - Taking Anneliese to baby clinic at 1.30pm to get her weighed (it's been 4 weeks since she was last weighed) , then Cameron is off to the Dr's at 4.10pm
• Thursday - Anneliese has her 3rd set of vaccinations at 4.30pm, then I m out at Karaoke 9pm as Duncan has a new monthly gig
• Friday - My friend Sam is over in the am again with Freddie
• Saturday - we have another friends little girls 1st birthday party & BBQ at 2.30pm

Bound to get some other friends wanting to meet up for coffee during the week sometime too, god knows when I will fit it in with all the housework & feeding Anneliese & everything else - LOL!!!

A woman's work is never done...

Grrrr ~ Pens & Hermione Just Don't Go!!!

Why oh why does my daughter insist on getting hold of pens & drawing on things she shouldn't??? Now when she was very little I could understand this as she didn't know any better, but she has been told a million & one times since she 1st did it with a biro that she should only use pencils & only draw on paper or in colouring books...

I stupidly left a Permanent Marker on the table & whie doing the banking on the PC Hermione decides that she should remove the lid & draw in her pop-up fairy house ~ now this isn't too big a deal as it's her house after all & if she ruins it then it's her loss, but she not only drew on the inside of this she also decided that she would draw on her legs & her school uniform!!!

Now if it had been an old school dress then I'd not be so damn cross, but we just took the label off this dress today... It's brand damn spanking NEW!!!!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, kids what do you do with them???

Now she can wear this dress till it's too small pen stain & all, but I can't keep it for Anneliese which I am fed-up about as school uniform costs a fortune & now I have not one summer dress to keep for Anneliese as the other two Hermione has are stained with black paint from Nursery!!!

Tut, tut, tut ~ Think I'll stick her in a black bag from now on & save my money!!!

You'd think butter wouldn't melt, wouldn't you???

Why Does It All Go Wrong???

Look at those gorgeous blue eyes & that wonderful smile... Makes everything else seem trivial doesn't it???

Well, this week I am very sad, the first reason being that one of my very best friends Laura moved back to Canada... I am very pleased for her to be going back home, but am sad that I won't be seeing her every week for Latte at Costa coffee anymore.

We will have known each other 2 yrs this September & it was fate that brought us together via a course we were both doing - we just clicked from the moment we met & have been great friends ever since! I shall miss her dearly.

The 2nd reason I am sad this week is because of my lil lady's weight gain, when she was last weighed on April 25th, they had marked down in her book that she was 11lb 15oz instead of 10lb 15oz - now this in itself is not too trivial as the chart is done in kg, so her weight was plotted right on the growth chart.

Well, I had her weighed this week on May 23rd & she was just 11lb 12oz, this is obviously still a good weight but the reason I am sad is because she started off on the 91st centile when she was born & dropped down only 1 centile to just under the 75th centile which she was following quite nicely...

She is now almost down to the 25th centile, which is concerning me a lot as that's almost another 2 centile's she has dropped in just a month. Now the other 2 children when they were babies never dropped too far from the centile they were born on - Cameron started off on the 98th centile & dropped down to the 75th but then he went back up to the 91st centile & pretty much stayed around those 2 centiles... Hermione started on the 91st centile & dropped down to the 75th centile & is still following that perfectly, so you can see why I am just a bit concerned by this.

All of the children have been exclusively breast fed & I am hoping that I don't have to stop early with Anneliese, but I am concerned that my milk supply is not doing enough for her or maybe it's to do with her floppy larynx (Laryngomalacia) as she is quite a sickly baby which the other 2 weren't, I am sure that's caused by this condition!

On a brighter note, all the children have had Chicken Pox now... Hermione was the first to get it on Monday 30th April, she was quite grumpy the first few days but wasn't too spotty & seemed to get over it quite quickly... Cameron soon followed getting it on Wednesday 16th May & bless him he had it by far the worst - he was covered from top to toe & had it everywhere including his mucous membranes (eyes, mouth, throat), he's still scabby now but they're all dropping off! Anneliese bless her had the mildest case ever - 1 solitary spot on her head!!! So needless to say she didn't suffer from it at all.

We've just had a week without Duncan as he's been fishing in France all week & came home last night, I took this picture last Sunday of all 3 children so he could see them all week on his phone... Don't they look good together???

Well, that's enough for tonight, off to play Neopets!!!