While I’m looking for work, my sister is also looking too. She lost her job last week so is now back to being unemployed again. She is not happy but there’s not a lot she could do about it. She’s now got qualifications in Customer Service though so its not all been for nothing. She’s applied for a few retail vacancies and had one interview but wasn’t successful so she’s now signed on with a recruitment agency. Hopefully she will be given some temping work through that. I think as long as she doesn’t have to sell people affordable life insurance quotes like she was at her last job, she’ll be happy! She hated it and was glad to be out of there.

Not my Grandma, Alex’s Grandma. Its her birthday today but I really don’t think we will have time to go down and see her. We’re both so busy today that I just don’t think we’ll fit it in. We’ll probably go and see her at the weekend. We didn’t get her a gift because basically, we didn’t know what to get her! I’m making a red velvet cake for myself for my birthday so I’ll probably take a big piece down to her and his Grandad as a small offering. Alex’s mum gave her some money towards a new pair of glasses so she can get a designer pair and Alex’s brothers got her some kind of anti wrinkle face creams set. I hope she has a nice birthday.

Alex’s mum might be finally getting a car back again. She’s not had a car for a while now since the last car she had was just written off since it failed its MOT and it just wasn’t worth even fixing it as it was that old. She’s not really been looking to get a new car since but Alex’s brother might be getting a new car and he said if he does then he will give his old car to his mum. I hope he does get a car because it will make Alex’s mum’s life a lot easier. She walks back and to to work every day and its quite far. She’s not in the best of health with her diabetes and it would help her out a little bit. I guess she should start looking at some cheap car insurance just in case she get it.

Alex’s auntie has a pond in her garden with lots of koi fish in it. Its not a very big pond but I bet its a bit of a pain to keep clean. She has a water pump that creates a small waterfall over the pond but I can imagine a pond skimmer would make cleaning it a lot easier. They collect up all the floating debris and even leaves and other bits of plants that may fall into the pond. I love his auntie’s garden. Its so pretty. I went last summer to take photos of it but I never got around to editing them. I probably should do that soon.

Alex’s mum gets a lot of joint pain in her knee’s and ankles. I found this joint pain remedies website that may help her. Every time it gets cold she gets joint pain and if she sits for long periods of time. It would be nice to give her some kind of relief from it. She thinks her weight doesn’t help her but it can’t help to try out different remedies.

I don’t know about you but after Christmas and New Year, I always feel really tired and drained. I think there is such a big build up to Christmas and you spend most of your time running around either shopping, mailing cards and shipping boxes, wrapping gifts, tidying the house before it gets overrun with wrapping paper and all those other bits that I’ve forgotten, that when its all over, you just don’t know what to do with yourself! New Year isn’t really a big thing for me. I have only ever gone out on New Year once and I got very drunk, was very ill the next day (picture me lying on the couch throwing up in a bag because I couldn’t get upstairs quick enough) and I just don’t think I want to do it again. I did enjoy myself that night even though parts are blank but I had a much better New Year this year when I just stayed at home with the kids and Alex and me and Alex playing Guitar Hero until about 11.45PM and then saw the New Year into together while I cleaned the house to get ready to go to bed! I’m so boring, haha.

I’m just ready to take on this new year and do all the things I should have done last year. I’m not going to say that I hope this year is better than last year because although I had some pretty sad, upsetting and depressing times, I also had some great times. We went on a family holiday to Spain, I got engaged, I’ve become a stronger person, I’ve become a healthier person and I’ve also become less materialistic. Each year teaches you something and you should never say “Last year was awful. I hope next year is better,” because you shouldn’t forget about the good times you had too.

Happy New Year everyone!

My mum and dad have needed to have a new bathroom fitted in for a long while now. They’ve had a pretty bad leak for since I left home – three and a half years ago – and they have just never done anything about. Its all my dad’s fault that nothing had been done about it. My mum has been asking him since in the first initial leak started and do you know how he responded? “You’re having a shower wrong! When I have a shower it doesn’t leak!” So apparently, you can have a shower the right way, and you can have a shower the wrong way. News to me!

Anyway. My mum has text me not long ago saying that my dad has called a plumber out for Wednesday. I asked her whether it was about the bathroom but she hasn’t responded yet. I really hope it is. Dad has been talking about how much he wants a double walk in shower for a few months now and maybe he’s finally decided to get one fitted. Its going to be a big job because all the floorboards will need replacing because of the leak and they will probably re-tile the whole room while they’re at it. I think a trip to B&Q would be in order too to pick out the new American Standard toilet, sink, radiators and walk in shower.

My grandad has recently had another hip operation. He’s had so many problems with this hip since the first initial operation. I think this might the fourth time he has work done on it including three hip replacements. He used to play rugby and that’s the cause of all the trouble he’s had with it. The hip replacements never really worked out right and the last one he had a few years ago has left him with loads of problems. He’s had a lot of infections and this surgery was to remove his hip, clean out the infection and place a block in his hip until the infection had completely cleared up. He’s going to be without a hip for around 3-6 weeks and then he has to go back into hospital to have a new hip replacement put back in. If this doesn’t work then he might have to be a wheelchair.

Its sad to see him this way really because we used to do everything together. He’d take me to rugby practice, swimming lessons, gymnastics and the park. To see him unable to walk a distance without a walking stick isn’t nice. We used to go to the cinema a lot together too but he can’t sit for long periods of time any more so we don’t even do that together.

I was trying to figure out a way to move one of the beds downstairs so he could sleep downstairs but there’s no way we can do it. Thankfully my grandparents have a walk in shower with a high seat inside, rather than a bath otherwise they would need to look into getting them one of those walk in tubs installed. Hopefully this last operation works and he doesn’t have any more problems with it.

Emelye’s mum is currently pregnant and she only has around 2-3 weeks left. She’s having a little boy and I still haven’t been out and bought a gift for when the baby is born. I keep meaning to do it but because I don’t put it on my shopping list, by the time I’m leaving the town centre, I’ve totally forgotten. I’ll get around to buying something in the next couple of weeks before the baby gets here. I was thinking of maybe doing some newborn photos of the baby for her as a gift too. It gives me some experience in it too! Having a photo taken of the baby when its born is a great idea so that you can put the photo on the baby announcements that you send out to people. Everyone always wants to see a photo of your new baby and its a two-in-one idea!

Yesterday, we had to make the decision to put our hamster, Snowball to sleep. He was Emelye’s hamster but since she’s only here two days a week most weeks, me and Alex did most of the caring for him (its been me solely for the past two months). I really got attached to him, more than I realised. His kidney’s had failed and he hadn’t even urinated for two days. His stomach was so swollen and he stopped eating. He was just sleeping constantly. Alex took him to the vets on Monday afternoon and they gave him two shots of antibiotic but it did nothing. The vet told him to bring him back today but we didn’t think it fair to leave him another day so Alex took him back yesterday. My bedroom is so quiet without him. I’m used to being woken up several times by him moving around and chewing the cage. I woke up quite a lot last night, panicking that he’d got out of his cage because I couldn’t hear or see him. I know it was the right thing to do but I was more upset than I thought. Everyone is on about getting another one – not now but in the future – and I’m sorry but I just don’t want another. For one I can’t deal with loving a pet for only two years and having it taken away from you. And two, I just don’t want anymore responsibility. I mean, I’ve love a bearded dragon but I don’t want to be tied down even more than I am now. I don’t plan on getting anymore pets full stop after Jak and Daxter have gone. It really is too upsetting when they die.