Me on Monday

Well, I haven't joined in with Sian for a while, so thought I ought to make an effort!

So, last week saw my second full week in my role as medical typist which I am really enjoying. It is challenging with all the medical terminology and accents of the doctors, but the ladies I am working with are lovely and the days wizz past!

I am keeping up with my 3 times a week treadmill exercising and now do 1.5 miles at 3.5mph with three spurts of 1 minute at 5mph. I intend to try and do a lot more jogging and less walking as time goes on!

Slimming World is going fantastically and yesterday I got my 2.5 stone award. I am nearly at target and am so pleased with the results. Yesterday I ordered a new dress to wear to Penny's graduation, one which I would never have ordered before!

And yesterday we went to visit Ben and Amy. It was Ben's 26th birthday last Wednesday, so we went down to visit him to give him his presents. We gave him a new working out t-shirt and Hugh insisted that he needed a drill! I wasn't sure, but Ben was thrilled with it!

We also took my Mum and Dad down as they hadn't seen the new house and were very keen to see it, and Ben and Amy!

Penny is back into her baking (with GBBO being on the television) so she made the birthday cake - Amy didn't have enough candles, so she made up 26 with2 candles and number five then 1 candle to add onto the five - imaginative, I'll give her that! And I was very good and didn't have a slice, but ate a HiFi bar lol!

Today we have been catching up on jobs - me indoors and Hugh in the garden. I also got around to scrapping a couple of my Five Faves photos, which I will share later.

And I'll finish with a few photos from last weekend when I went to Marks Hall Gardens and Arboretum with Wendy. We visited earlier in the year, but this time there was a sculpture exhibition on which was lovely! I took over 100 photos! But here are just 3 of my favourites.

Hope you have a good week!

Me on Monday

This weekend has been an extension of my birthday type of weekend....a visiting Hever Castle and Gardens...celebrating with my extended family in Hemel.....revising medical terminology sort of weekend!

I have always wanted to visit Hever and it didn't disappoint.

On Sunday we went over to my Mum and Dad's. and my sister and her family joined us for a slice of birthday cake made by Penny!

And in my free time, it has been study, study, study! I am enjoying my course, but it is quite hard work now!

Oh yes, but I did manage to finish knitting my shawl in time to take away with me on my holiday!

Waving to Sian, whose idea this was.

Hope you all had a great weekend and are able to enjoy some of the promised sunshine this week (if you are in the UK that is!).

Five days to go!

Yes, just five days and I will be leaving my job! I can't believe that it has come round so quickly. I am out to lunch on Tuesday with a good friend from the IT department and then when I finish at midday on Friday I will be out to lunch with Yvonne and Brenda, my colleagues in the HR department for the last 7 years who have both retired now.

This weekend we have had beautiful weather in Essex - just right for going out for the day on Saturday with Wendy and Sue. I was bemoaning the fact to Hugh that I hadn't got any scrapbooking done this weekend and then realised that sometimes we need to stop the scrapbooking to go out and make the memories to scrapbook in the future!

I had a wonderful day out with the 'girls'. We visited the Beth Chatto gardens just east of Colchester.

After wandering around for about an hour we had our picnic lunch and then had a bit more of a wander. As there was still plenty of the afternoon left we then jumped in the car and drove to Flatford Mill, where we took in Constable's view where he painted the Hay Wain and had a cup of tea.

Of course we took a selfie!

Sunday saw Hugh and me doing jobs, taking a walk into Wickford where I managed to get two pairs of linen trousers and some shorts for my holiday - all TWO sizes smaller than this time last year! Slimming World is going really well! The afternoon was spent weeding the garden, a trip to the recycling centre and then cooking a roast dinner. The weekend was rounded off by some knitting of my shawl which I want to finish to take on holiday.

Waving to Sian today - haven't done a Me on Monday post for a while, but it is nice to be back and joining in again!

Hope you all had a good weekend and I will be back again soon!

Me on Monday

This weekend has been a hunting for new net curtains, having a naughty bacon and mushroom roll for lunch from the van, finishing the preparation work in the lounge, running Penny to the station and collecting her on several occasions sort of weekend!

The van is actually very close to where I work, but I resist the temptation to buy from there frequently as it is definitely NOT the healthy option!

This week sees me interviewing, with my manager, for a replacement HR Assistant in my office. Brenda has decided not to return after her cancer treatment and Penny can't stay with me forever! I hope that I find someone I can really get on with!

I also have to go for a blood test on Thursday and all week we will have our decorator in to decorate the lounge. As we have no curtains up now until next weekend I can see I won't be spending the evenings in there as I will feel too exposed! Especially if Hugh is away.

I hope you have all had a good weekend and have a great week. Soon be February - hurray!

Me on Monday

Phew! Thank goodness the weekend is over! It has been a wallpaper stripping (all done now), rubbing woodwork down, decorating again sort of weekend.

We did get a break mid Saturday morning when our friends Peter and Maggie dropped in for coffee. They live in Wales so we don't get to see them too often, so that was a nice hour!

And on top of that, although we were working really hard all day Saturday I didn't have to cook an evening meal as we had been invited to our friend's Gillian and Andy for a meal. We hadn't seen them for about 6 months, so that was a lovely way to spend Saturday evening and Gillian produced a wonderful meal for us.

Talking of food, I used my soup maker again this weekend. It has seemed like soup weather recently and on Friday I made up my own recipe of parsnip, carrot and potato soup which was really nice. Today I took a bag of mixed vegetables for soup from Aldi and popped them in the soup maker. I think you were really supposed to use them to make a chunky soup, but I prefer my soups smooth so chose that option. The result was delicious, but a rather evil green colour!

I hope that you had a good weekend and that it was more relaxing than mine! This week looks to be very busy at work again, so I am looking forward to next weekend when there is just some minor prep work to be finished before we get our handyman in to finish the decorating.

Me on Monday was originally Sian's idea, so do hop on over to her blog to see what she has been up to this weekend!

Me on Monday

I've missed this for the past few weeks, but I am back today! This is an idea adapted from Sian over at From High in the Sky.

This weekend I've been to the cinema with Wendy to see Mockingjay Part 1 (brilliant!)

boot shopping with Penny,

helping Penny with her makeup for a trip out,

Christmas shopping with Hugh,

and knitting. Not a particularly busy weekend, but nice to spend time with Penny and chatting a lot with Ben on the phone.

And here I am this evening making a start on writing my Christmas cards - really late for me!
Tomorrow I am up to London for an HR course and we are recruiting at work again so I will be VERY busy in the lead up to Christmas! I've nearly got all my Christmas shopping done now, but still have to finish those cards and get them sent off! How are you doing with your Christmas preparations? Are you going to join in with Sian's Christmas Club Revival? I definitely am!

Me on Monday

This weekend has been a taking antibiotics, having eardrops, keeping warm and not doing much sort of a weekend as I have come down with an ear infection.

It was also a spooky Friday, Penny entertaining her two friends with Halloween cake, 'blood' sorbet and scary movies kind of a weekend.

I hope that you had a better weekend than me!

No photo of me today as I am not at my best, but here is what has been keeping me going all weekend ...

Waving to Sian over a From High in the Sky, whose idea this Monday meme is.

Me on Monday

Well almost! I'm in Leeds on business and didn't have time to post yesterday. Posting today from my phone. 

Well this weekend was spent taking Hugh to spend his birthday vouchers at the train shop, ironing and tidying my scrapping space. Not very busy but nice and relaxing. 

Going home this afternoon and the rest of the week in the office. Penny has two friends coming round to celebrate Halloween on Friday and I am hoping to get more knitting done.

Here I am this morning in my hotel room. 

Whatever you are up to this week I hope you have a nice time. Waving to Sian whose idea this meme was. 

Prolific weekend!

Whilst Hugh was in Vienna, I had plenty of spare time to scrapbook and I was on a roll! I popped Dan Brown's Inferno into the CD player, opened up the conservatory doors, grabbed my 'Tea for Two' kit and settled down.

I love the cork hearts in this kit and scattered them about on this layout.

I had used the 'B' side of this bottom piece of paper for another layout, but managed to save the wording as I really liked it. It was perfect to go with this photo of the two of us taken in Crete.

By the time I got to this layout I was down to scraps, apart from the Shimelle word paper. I have loved this photo of Penny ever since I took it, so was really pleased to finally scrap it.

And this layout was also made with the scraps that were left. I had to add a piece of white cardstock, but apart from that this all came from the kit (oh, the sequins are from the 'Early Autumn' kit).

I also made three other layouts over the weekend - the one of the concert last Friday which I have already shared and another two which I will share with you soon!

Me on Monday

Well this has been a funny old weekend. Started Friday evening with a fun trip to London to a concert with Penny, didn't get home until 12.30am and then had to be up and out by 8.45am to take Penny to the chirpodist! The rest of Saturday was spent doing chores and then some scrapbooking. Penny went out to a wrestling match in London and I had to take Hugh to the station as he was travelling to Heathrow to get a plane to Vienna on business.

Penny got back very late Saturday night, early Sunday morning and I had to stay up as she had forgotten her key!

So today has been spent relaxing and not doing much! It has been lovely and sunny and very mild so I got some washing dried on the line and then spent the rest of the day in the conservatory with the doors open doing scrapbooking. I managed to finish my 'Tea for Two' kit and have done 6 layouts this weekend!

This week sees a crafting evening with Wendy and Sue, Hugh returning on Wednesday and Penny off to uni and a haircut on Friday.

Hope you have had a fun weekend and have a good week.

Not exactly me on Monday, but me and Penny as we set off for the concert!
Saying 'hello' to Sian whose idea this meme is.

It's Me on Monday Time!

This weekend has been a dodging the showers, drying washing indoors, baking cakes, and celebrating Hugh's birthday sort of weekend. We had a lovely family party yesterday lunchtime and Penny made Hugh a fantastic Minion cake - he was thrilled with it!

Today was back to work - driving through some massive puddles that were more like lakes - the flooding here has been tremendous, but fortunately our house is ok. And here I am on Monday evening, knitting some more of my poncho. I would love to crochet one of the ripple blankets I have been seeing around, but unfortunately I cannot crochet for toffee! I do love to knit though and am rather thrilled with this pattern I am knitting.

Looking forward to seeing what you have all been up to over the weekend and waving to Sian whose idea this meme is.

Me on Monday

This weekend has been a ....

making apple muffins, enjoying the late autumn sunshine, spending time with Ben, driving to Hemel, meeting up with old college friends and talking and laughing until I have no voice left, staying at my sister's, spending one on one time with my sister, driving back home and having a family Sunday dinner with Ben, Amy, Penny and Hugh sort of weekend.

You may have seen this photo on Facebook and later in the week there will be a blog post with it scrapbooked, but here I am with my friends.

And here I am on Monday!

Joining in with Sian to say 'hi' on Monday.

Me on Monday

Hello! And hello to Sian, whose idea it is to do a quick post on a Monday summing up your weekend!

So, my weekend has been spent visiting the chiropractor with Penny getting her toe redressed, walking to town in the sunshine, harvesting our apples, scrapbooking, changing beds, ironing, clothes shopping with Hugh, ordering a new compact camera as my trusty Canon has given up the ghost and, most excitingly, booking a short break to Florence in December type of weekend!

Today it’s a back to work, but wearing new shoes sort of day.

This week I am looking forward to Penny working with me tomorrow and Wednesday morning, Ben coming home for the weekend, more planning for Florence with Hugh, a college reunion on Saturday and seeing my sister and her family.

What are you up to this week?