Royal Garden Party 2011

If you haven't picked up on it yet my hubby is in the army, and this year we went to the Royal Garden Party.  It was fab, I loved parking on the Mall, walking around outside Buckingham Palace with my hubby in his uniform, he looked utterly gorgeous and it was very proud making.  I also loved my dress:

Obviously not me!

and my hat which was the same turquoise as the little bits in the dress, but I can't find a picture of it :(

In any case, despite the torrential rain on and off throughout the afternoon we had an amazing day, some lovely finger sandwiches and mini cakes, we had to have a cucumber sandwich each, it would have been rude not to! Followed by a hilarious natter with one of the Yeoman of the Guard who was lovely and a smile from Prince Philip, very sad not to have met him, I think he is utterly brilliant, but amazing to be 5ft away!  We then had a walk around the grounds which were breathtaking, and so well maintained!  Obviously we expect them to be, they are The Queen's gardens after all!  I just wish I could nab one of her gardeners for maybe an hour a week?!

60th Celebrations

My lovely mummy has turned 60 today, happy birthday mummy!!

Daddy took her to London for a long weekend and we all surprised her on Sunday, well my little brother (3 years younger and 7" taller lol) managed to surprise her in any case!  We on the other hand drove first of all to the wrong hotel completely, then the wrong branch of the right hotel and finally arrived at the right hotel 40 minutes late ... although we arrived with champagne and nibbles so I think we got away with it!!

Daddy had been planning this weekend all year bless him and had arranged for us all to go to Gareth's restaurant the Rose & Crown, http://www.roseandcrownhighgate.co.uk/ for an early dinner.

The food was, in all honesty, the most delicious I have ever tasted!  I had the warm goats cheese salad to start followed by the roast sirloin of scottish beef, both were amazing.  The goats cheese was yummy, tart with sweet roasted veg on top of a crunchy ciabatta, plus the Rose & Crown is not one of those annoying restaurants were the starter is either gone in one bite or you feel full up afterwards, as Golidlocks says, it was just right!  The beef was perfectly cooked, the roast potatoes were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, the carrots & parsnips were lovely and sweet, the yorkshire pud was HUGE but hadn't been burnt or gone soggy, just perfectly cooked and the gravy was out of this world! I seriously want to go for lessons with Gareth and learn how to recreate that meal!  The service was fab too, no notepad required here the lovely waitress took our orders and just melted away and the right food, served to the right people magically reappeared, I have no idea how she did it on such a busy day but the girl deserves a medal!  Even the wine list got the thumbs up from daddy and we were having such a good time that we completely lost track of time and almost missed the next bit of entertainment he had arranged!

Mummy had been driving herself crazy on the tube whilst we were on our way to Gareth's restaurant trying to work out where we were going, I had to remind her of the lesson she forever tells me (I'm still trying to learn it!) patience is a virtue lol.  So you can imagine her surprise when instead of going straight back to London Bridge off we jumped at Waterloo, again she had NO idea where we were going, brilliant!  Daddy, my little bro and my gorgeous hubby dashed off to pick up the tickets (well the utterly lovely hubby stayed halfway all the time keeping an eye on mummy and I so that we didn't get lost bless him, I am so lucky!) and we followed at a more leisurely pace thanks to our heels! Once we rounded the corner and started heading towards the London Eye mummy squealed, actually literally squealed, she has never ever squealed in her life!!  She has wanted to go on the Eye for ages and was so happy to finally be going, especially as she had suggested it that morning and daddy had fobbed her off lol.  The weather had been very kind to us and stopped raining as we arrived at their hotel and at this stage in the evening it was clear enough to see the majority of London, we all loved it.

We then all headed home, a fab 60th celebration was had and I reckon daddy has earned a couple of year's worth of brownie points with all the effort that went in to it, not mentioning the thoughtfulness bless him.

Lady of Leisure

Well work is officially finished!  My last day was Friday, it was rather strange as I have been so excited about our new life up North that I hadn't really thought about leaving work, more about all the things I have to do before we move!

It was a fab day, I tidied up my desk, emailed all 'my' IFAs to say goodbye and thanks for being lovely, bought a ton of cakes for work to say thanks for a fab 16 months and - of course! - went to the pub for goodbye drinks.  All of which was followed by a thoroughly embarrassing goodbye speech from my 'boss' (as boss was a boy he obviously couldn't really be my boss, as everyone knows, girls rule boys drool, fact) which included the story about the time we took some IFAs to Newmarket races and I ended up throwing a tiny teeny amount of water over one particularly icky and letchy IFA!  In my defence he really did deserve it, he was horrible, one of those types of middle aged blokes who thinks they are fantastic and that all women love them, UGH!  I managed to say something not too embarrassing in reply and urged them all to enjoy the peace & quiet!

After all of that there was then a silly amount of spoiling, a couple of lovely plants for our new home up North, some booze and a gift voucher for M&S, as I said a silly amount of spoiling bless them!

So I am now officially a lady of leisure ... and I have to be honest, it feels good!

I was thinking ...

I was thinking this evening whilst walking Jack - a fact I am rather surprised about seeing as my last but one day in work was insanely busy and I have been dreaming about a glass of cold vino since about 15:00!!  In any case, as we ambled around our local park/woods, stopping now and again to have a quick natter with the other walkers, I thought how lovely it is when you own a dog, we all know each other - although to be fair most of us only know each other by our dog's names! - and say hello, ask how each other are, say hello to each other's dogs and have a quick natter about our day.  It's just so lovely to be a part of this community, we don't know anything about each other really, but we know we love our dog's and that is enough to be nice to each other and pass the time of day.

Tina and I walk Jack and Ralph (her gorgeous staffy boy, will try and take a picture of him on Monday) together most mornings and have become very good friends as a result, she came to my hen do and I've bandaged Ralph's paw, friends for life!  When you know you've met someone as nuts about their dog as you are about yours you know you've found a decent person!

It is the same in the dog rescue community, as I've said previously, I have known Sarah & Paul who run Wiccaweys (http://www.wiccaweys.com/) for about 7/8 years now, and as a result I have met various people (through transport runs, at their home from which they run Wiccaweys, at dog shows, meeting up for rescue dog walks and on-line organising homechecks etc) who I have so much in common with, and there is nothing more inspiring than a bunch of relative strangers coming together to help to organise saving a dog's life.  It really does put 'normal' life into perspective when people are willing to drop everything to help an urgent transport run to get a dog from a pound to a rescue place and change their lives to fit a foster dog in.

All in all, anyone who truly loves their dog (by that I mean someone who has put the training and socialisation work in and who walks them come rain, shine, ice, snow etc etc) is okay by me .. and by Jack!

4 days to go ...

My last Monday at my current job has now been and gone ... I am very excited about our new life up North and I can't wait to move and see how 'proper' army life will be, it is one thing marrying someone in the army but actually living on the patch will be like being back at boarding school ... other than living with a boy and being allowed to drink that is!!  I am rather apprehensive about not having a job though, even though I will have 101 things to do - puppy training and Jack training at the forefront of those tasks, such a chore! - I am not sure whether I will drive myself (and therefore my lovely hubby!) nuts by not having a job, he has given me until 2012 before I give in and find work, but I think it may be sooner than that, even if it is charity work or something part-time I reckon I'll drive us all mad if I don't do something, unless our non furry family starts - fingers crossed!

The lovely Becky - who is having the girl from the same litter our new furry baby is coming from - emailed this pic of our boy to me tonight, he is utterly gorgeous and 5 weeks old here, I cannot believe how much bigger he is in a week!  His ears alone are twice the size!

I've got my eye on you!

Just a quick mindless bit of info for you all, I absolutely LOVE One Tree Hill, Monday nights are once again complete!

Shattered!

We had an amazing weekend.  I had a lovely night out with Suzi and her girls, although I am slightly apprehensive about her wedding now as it may be in Four Weddings, I've never watched it but I hate the thought of being on tv!  We'll have to wait and see as her venue may not allow it, but I'm nervous already and it isn't even my wedding!  In any case it was a lovely evening, the food was absolutely delicious as was the wine Suzi has chosen, yum!

We then went to Rob and Lucy's for the rest of the weekend to celebrate Zach's 1st birthday, I can't believe he is one already!  It only seems like yesterday that they were telling us they were expecting (over our New Year celebrations in West Wales ... that will be on hold this year as up North to West Wales is a bit too long a drive!) and now he is one!  Zach is just the most adorable kid, I fell in love with him the first time I met him and have been trying to persuade Lucy ever since to let us take him home but she's having none of it, can't believe how mean she is!  There were 3 other one year olds on the celebration committee and one fabulous 3 month old who was passed from pillar to post and was very happy to accept the cuddles that came his way, BBQ was gorgeous - although a typical boys only zone! - and then in the evening Rob's utterly hilarious younger brother Mike set up a game of extreme croquet with my hubby, it was SO funny to watch and even funnier later on when I joined in and kicked their arses by about 4 holes ... with Lucy coming in second ... girls rule, boys drool!

Got home in good time as we had LOTS to do, the washing machine is on the fifth load, the garden has been weeded and we have watched a proper Sunday afternoon film (brilliant but mindless - aliens come to earth and we kick their arses lol) and I am now watching Marley & Me whilst cuddling Jack and enjoying a cold glass of vino, life is good!

It's the weekend!

The weekend is only 15 minutes away!  Silly to get so excited really when life will be constant weekends soon … I know I’m odd but that rather fills me with dread!  How on earth will I keep myself busy?!  Walking the dogs, training the puppy, baking cakes, oh and I’m going to try and teach myself how to quilt … I promise I am 29 not 70!  Lots of fun plans for this weekend though!

Tonight I am meeting the lovely Suzi, together with her maid of honour Vicky and another of her friends Cynthia (who I’ve yet to meet a she couldn’t make Suzi’s hen do).  Suzi is getting married at the end of the month (yay!!!) and tonight we are going over to her venue for some last minute planning - and apparently some sampling of the wines, such a shame! - I can’t wait to see where Suzi and Ed will be getting married, so exciting!

Suzi is one of my best friends and, oddly, the result of a friend date my utterly lovely hubby set me up on when I moved down to Kent to join him.  At the time I was hideously embarrassed that he felt he had to set me up on a friend date, after all surely I could make my own friends?  I’m a grown woman for goodness sake!  Then I realised just how sweet my hubby was being, he was so worried about me being lonely and miserable having left all my girlies behind in the ‘Shire, and he so wanted me to be happy having made the big move to come and live with him, that he went to all that trouble to set me up with Suzi, who is utterly fabulous and was very well chosen!

I digress!  Hubby and I are then heading off to celebrate Zach’s first birthday with a BBQ and quite probably rather a lot of Pimms, whoop!  Rob & Lucy (Zach’s parents) are so brilliant, Rob was our best man and did the most fantastic and utterly hysterical speech and Lucy is just one of the sweetest people I know.

All in all I can’t wait for 5 o’clock to come around so I can run out the door and get the weekend started!

The family

Thought I should give you all a quick introduction to our furry ones.  First is Sparks, as benefits the oldest!  She is 6 and a talker, especially when hungry, the drive from Kent to 'up North' with her will be entertaining ... to say the least!

Doing her best "You lookin' at me?" expression!

Then there is Jack, our collie cross and my baby.  He is 5 and a superstar (bar being scared of hot air balloons - from when we lived in Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham, they are everywhere there! - and fireworks, oh and BBQ's which makes the summer ... well ... interesting?!).  He came to me when he was 9 weeks old having arrived from Ireland at 6 weeks with his mum and siblings to a collie rescue called Wiccaweys (http://www.wiccaweys.co.uk/) who I have been involved with for about 7/8 years now doing homechecks and the odd bit of fostering.  In any case here he is!

He loves the beach so much his paws don't touch the ground!

Last up is the newest addition to our little family, an absolutely adorable border terrier pup who has yet to be named! He is coming from the utterly lovely Geraldine and Steve of Colourboxdogs (http://www.colourboxdogs.co.uk/) and I met him for the first time last Saturday, literally had to drag myself away from cuddling him as he is so gorgeous.  He will probably be called Marne, although we are going to wait to bring him home until we finally decide.  He is four weeks old here ...

Just look at that belly! Crying out for raspberries!

An Introduction

The aim of this is purely to help me keep a track of everything that is happening before, during and after our move up North from deepest darkest Kent.

Our life is about to change dramatically, we'll be moving onto the patch (married quarters on an army camp) at the end of the month, I will be giving up my job in about a week to start packing up our house and a border terrier pup will be joining us (the hubby, Jack our collie cross, Sparks our puss-prat and I) once we've moved. There will undoubtedly be a lot of puppy photos which will hopefully make up for my ramblings!

The move itself is very exciting, new area, new people and new puppy, all good! Giving up work again isn't too much fun, I've never not worked but I'm hoping the pup and this blog will keep me out of too much mischief .... I guess we'll just have to wait and see!