Remembrance Week 2014

Last week started with Remembrance Sunday here in the UK, at 11 am on the sunday and on Remembrance Day itself which is the 11 of November we hold a two minutes silence to remember those who lost their lives. 

I was at work both days and on the Sunday I was surprised by whoever runs the radio station as they chose to play bird sounds instead. It sounded nice, but was a strange choice for a two minute silence :). 

On the Tuesday I was really annoyed by a customer, as despite the fact I was holding a sign to warn people we were holding the two minutes silence, and the radio had just said he proceeded to harass me for a bag and moan that the two minutes must be over. He even suggested when the two minutes was over that it was something we'd made up, as if I have that much spare time on my hands at work.

While I don't always remember the two minute silence when I'm at home, Remembrance Day is important to me as the day we remember all those who gave and continue to give their lives so that we can live and have a better life. I'm only sad that a hundred years on from the start of world war 1, the war to end all wars, that we are still having to fight wars to let people live safely. 

The rest of my week was again a blur of work, and I didn't even get time to go out with my dad on Friday. 

The highlight of my week was probably cashing out on the social writing site bubblews :).

Bonfire night week

The first week of November here in the UK is always a week of listening to fireworks. 

On the 5 th of November we celebrate Guy Fawkes or bonfire night.  This celebrates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and king James 1 (vi of Scotland). The plot was lead by Robert Catesby, with Guy Fawkes being in charge of lighting the fuse. 

In the UK we celebrate the failure of the plot by having Bon fires, burning a guy (a stuffed representation), and watching fireworks. We also eat hotdogs, and jacket or baked potatoes which are traditionally cooked in foil in the bonfire. 

I didn't go to a celebration as I was working, although I did see a few fireworks. 

My week passed in a blur of work, with the high point being going out for lunch with my dad on Friday. We went to a local pub restaurant, where I had a nice sausage and mash. We spent the afternoon chatting, as it was raining. I did take some photos of the lake the pub is on though.

On the Saturday I went to look at an inside car boot sale with my husband. These are sales in the UK where you put all your old stuff you want to sell in your car, drive to somewhere the event is organised and then out it all on a table to sell. The one we went to looked pretty quiet but I think we are still going to give it a go selling there at the weekend.

Last week of October and Halloween

Well the last week of October seems to have passed in a blur of work, although I did get more done than last week. 

I went back to work on Tuesday, although I was still feeling sniffy and tired from last weeks cold. I combated that by having a few afternoon naps and trying to take it easy at work, not always easy, but I aimed for more of a slow steady pace, which seemed to work. 

On Monday I went to a nearby park with my husband called Jesmond Dene, it's pretty large with lots of different things in it. There is a small zoo with birds and sheep, a visitors centre, as well as lots of old lovely buildings. We walked along to a lovely waterfall, and I couldn't resist looking at the old mill, which is now a ruin. 

On Friday I went out with my dad to nearby Blyth quayside. We had a nice bite to eat at a small cafe which is actually a charity, as its ran by volunteers and all the money goes to the local lifeboat. We then had a walk around nearby Ridley Park, which was lovely and we enjoyed a cup of tea outside :). 

On Halloween I didn't do much, we only had one lot of trick or treaters, and those were my friends children :). I can remember going trick or treating when I was a child, but it wasn't as big in the UK as it is now. I had to make my own costume, and we were lucky to get a couple of sweets, 30p and an apple. Nowadays it's much more commercialised and I know children who get £30 plus lots of sweets :)

October Round up week 3

The third week of October has been a week I've lost pretty much to the common cold. My husband kindly gave me it at the end of last week and I've spent all of this week fighting it.

I was off sick from work for most of the week and spent a lot of the time in bed, catching up on bubblews and reading The White Queen by Phillipa Gregory. I was even too ill to go out with my dad on the Friday, instead he came to mine for a cup of tea.

One thing did catch my eye at on the news last week, apparently it's a waste of time buying cold and flu remedies we should just use honey and lemon. Apart from the fact I doubt it's much cheaper, as have they seen the price of decent honey? I had just stocked up on an own brand hot lemon drink and some Jakemans cold lozenges. I would have bought more but nearly every cold remedy there is includes paracetamol, so clearly these are not something you can easily mix and match. I'm pretty much better now, and in all fairness I suspect it was the extra sleep which helped.

On the topic of our problems with the Asda van hitting our car, after several more phone calls on Saturday we finally got a letter from their claims handlers asking us to provide a statement of what happened, a diagram, photos and to get two written independent quotes. We sent a letter back pointing out my husband is self employed and we don't have time to run around after a company who has performed an illegal act, although we did include photos, the diagram, a description of their drivers antics and a copy of the cctv. We also suggested that they send a claims assessor like any other insurance company, or they can of course just send the vehicle somewhere to be fixed.

I think that's about all for last week, I hope you all had a better one :)

Second week in October weekly roundup

So last week seems to have gone by in a blur of work and sickness. It started off with my husband coming down with a nasty cold and proceeded to him giving it to me, thanks dearest.

Apart from that work remains chaotic as we are still short staffed, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and we should soon be taking more people on. 

The highlight of the week for me was visiting Bailiffgate Museum in Alnwick with my dad. It is a small museum all about Alnwick and the surrounding area, and is pretty interactive and fun. We both had a lovely time trying on hats and reading about the past and seeing different things from the past. We even learned a bit about Alnwick Pants, which are water fountains. 

The second highlight was a belated night out for my husband's birthday. We went to Laos in China town in Newcastle, it's an all you can eat buffet style restaurant. It was a nice meal and there was plenty of choice and nice food. We finished the night of with a drink in Rosie's bar, which is also in China Town. again we had a great time and there was a great atmosphere. The bar is a real mix of locals, townies and students.

The low point of my week was an Asda delivery van knocking the wing mirror of our car and then driving off. Luckily we had it on cctv, so my husband has contacted Asda to see what they are going to do. As of today they should have filled out a claim form, so hopefully we will hear back from the insurance company.

October Weekly Roundup

Well this has been my first week back since my holiday to Mallorca, so how has it been?

I think it's gone quite well although it's felt like a long week 

I've been reading Paul McKenna's book "Change your life in 7 days", although it's took me 6 days to get to day 4, I've been taking my time on day 4 as it's all about setting goals to make your dreams come true.

Work has been busy all week because we are looking for new staff, but the extra overtime will help bring in more money for christmas, and other things, and in a few weeks we will have new staff which is always nice, as I like meeting new people.

On thursday I went out with my mum and dad to the nearby village of Newbiggin by the sea. We had a lovely meal at the cafe in the visitor centre, and a nice walk along the sea front, although there was a lot of dog mess!

The high point of the week was my husband beating The Claims Guys. They are a ppi claims company who he had an agreement with back in 2011 to get the ppi back on a loan my husband had. They got the money back, but they really annoyed us with the fees as they lied to my husband. They had told him that he needed to pay their fee as he was going to receive the money himself direct from Northern Rock, so he agreed to pay on his credit card. The only problem was Northern Rock paid them, and it took them two months for them to pay my husband meaning he had to pay interest to the credit card. He wasn't happy and had cancelled another claim they were going to do for him after the first. He eventually got the money for the second claim last year, and The Claims Guys then attempted to bill him despite never having an agreement for the work. Needless to say he refused to pay. This year they had initiated proceedings in the small claims court, but after they read our defense, and our evidence that they never followed the rules at the time to create an agreement they dropped the case. A win win for me as it's less work for me, and means that I can go out with my dad this friday.

So it was a good week back, and I'm pleased to say I'm still feeling positive :)

Beamish

Last month I went to Beamish museum, in County Durham. It's an open air museum with a hands on approach.

The museum is set out into different areas, each of which showing a different period in north east England's history. There is a 1825 wagonway, called Pockerly Wagonway which has rides on different replica steam wagons. We went on a reproduction of the steam elephant, which was based on a wagon which used to take coal from the mine at Wallsend to the dock on the Tyne.

Next to this is Pockerly Manor house, which has been in the grounds since the 1400s, it now shows what life was like in the 1800s. There are several people in period costumes explaining different things and doing traditional crafts, like baking and candle making. I particularly liked the bed in a wooden box, as this reminds me of the description of the bed in Wuthering Heights.

The view from Pockerly Manor

There is also a pit village, which is made up of different buildings which have been taken down from other places in the north east and rebuilt. They include a 1913 school, terrace houses, a church, and some mine buildings. There is also a drift mine you can go down, and a traditional fish and chip shop.

Pit Ponies

The School

A Pit village bedroom

The other sections are Home Farm which is a farm set during world war 2 in the 1940s.

There is a main farm house, and a terrace of cottages across the road. There is also a few animals, and vegetables and things growing. There was also a lot of old farm machinery. In the house there was two ladies cleaning the old copper kitchen equipment in period dress, and old war songs on the radio. There was also an old air raid shelter in the garden, I was how small it was.

There was also a small outside cafe selling soup and drinks. We just had some of the pop we had taken with us, at a picnic table.

I liked the house in this section, and the animals, although none of them were very cooperative. The horses in the stables both had their backs to us, and the first pig we saw was busy ignoring us, even the ducks in the pond kept bobbing under the water when I tried to get a photo :)*

The last section we visited was the town which was set around 1917, this has old shops, a newspaper press, a bakery, a bank as well as a dentist. I loved this section, although it did feel like everywhere was trying to sell something. There was also a lovely park, a victorian train station and fair ground rides. 

The Hammer house of horrors. I mean the dentist :)

To get around the different sections we travelled on different old fashioned buses and trams. 

It was a great day out and with the ticket price to get in you can get in all year. I really would recommend a visit if you are in the area.

*Extract from my bubblews account