a birdsnest of cozy proportions and chaotic dimensions

Well, it's been a bad week on top of a couple more bad weeks - nothing earth shattering but constant really frustrating niggles in home life and work and I can't wait to pack up my other half and bugger off to Germany. Only have to be at work from 7 - 10 today (though the reason isn't great, builders and our landlord, eyeroll) and then tomorrow we sort out last minute problems (our neighbour bailed on us so no clue what to do with the cats during our hols).

Had been looking forward to receiving a lovely coat tomorrow but just had to cancel that - I had paid extra for nominated day delivery on Friday and have just seen that the retailer expects customers from NI to nominate a day early to get it on the correct day. How come their automated system can't figure that out? Shouldn't have been my job, and I am really gutted. I will be cold!

Small worries, and others have to wrestle with much bigger problems this time of the year so I shouldn't moan. I hope everyone is having a great festive season!

There was a horrendous downpour yesterday, thankfully the world started to end about 20 minutes after I arrived home - extensive flooding in Belfast meant that quite a number of roads I usually take were not passable. That didn't stop people from trying and so it transpires that most photos of the disaster seem to be of PSNI riot cars stalled in the floodwater with the police officers standing on the roofs of their cars. Like so.

How dense can you get?

Oh, and of course Ulster Bank has had problems for about 10 days now. What it means for us? It's the end of the month, today is payday and neither me nor my other half got paid. Which, frankly, sucks. Esp. as we're still under an Amber warning and I just really hope I make it back home tonight, cause this is a road I often take and was originally going to take yesterday: Maybe not...

I guess I have to be grateful for the chaos the Queen caused around here because all my usual routes lead me past Stormont so I went across the countryside.

I have a really bad cold and have to drive halfway across NI for Microsoft Word training and afterwards work til 8. Wish me luck - maybe I should wear a wetsuite and pack a kayak, just in case.

Because I don't work Monday but it's a public holiday I have to take those 7.3 hours allocated to me, which is why today is a day off work. It has been a crap fortnight that has made me realize that I need to change something in my life sooner rather than later, and I was really looking forward to just being able to charge my batteries and get a couple of things done around the house. Instead, I have a stinking cold. Of COURSE.

I had a groupon for a facial and the appointment is this afternoon - I was nervous about the experience anyway but now I am really no longer looking forward to it. Bah.

I forked out 330£ for repairs and check-ups on my car last week, including 2 new tyres and 1 tyre repair. OH has just come back from taking the dog for a walk, and he was gone for AGES because a tyre went flat while he was out and about and he had to change it out in the middle of nowhere with an excited puppy in the back of the car.

Cruel cruel world. And my MOT is on the 24th!

but amazon.co.uk has all 7 seasons of Buffy in a nice box-set for under 40£. I bought them mainly because Maureen re-watches the entire series about 1-2 a year and has Thomas' dvds so I bought a set for ourselves. It doesn't seem fair to deprive the woman.

Loves her mommy, really. Hopefully we'll get to chill over the weekend, this was supposed to be relaxing! Lovely night out (no Haggis at the pub :-( ) and I'm back at work tomorrow.

This is the first weekend we can take doggie outside!!!!! We visited Grandma up in Portstewart and I went crafting and all the crafters cooed and awwed over Maike, which she enjoyed very much. I wasn't going to take her into the shop but Sarah (shop owner) is pregnant (eeeee!) and with her wheelchair and bump she couldn't really navigate to see her so Thomas carried the pup inside. The groomer round the corner cut her nails for us while chatting with us and didn't charge for it, which was really nice, as well.

I have cancelled my audible membership and grazebox subscription and joined the land of iPhone owners (if my checks go through, eff knows how these things get decided), can't wait for my new baby to land at the end of the month.

In other news, OUCH. I had a nasty fall on the stairs yesterday - when they put the new flooring in, the carpet layers decided to ignore the hole in the floor and instead of filling it to just carpet over it. I thought it was just a missing floorboard underneath but now that the carpet has some give I found out, to my ankle's great pain, that it is a great big bloody whole on the landing. Down I went, with the laundry and everything else on top of me, cursing. Knee scraped bloody and a twisted ankle that looks slightly misshaped today - OH sent them an angry email so hopefully the landlord will get it sorted as its a menace.

Today we're taking Maike for another walk and then we're off to Ikea and the afternoon will be spent cleaning & tidying fun. Oh, and the cats need to be Frontlined - I have iffy bitemarks that itch like the devil after Fumble slept between my knees.

And now I have to go, the bitch has stolen my trousers!

wish I hadn't bothered spending 100£ I didn't have on a plane ticket home for mt 30th, instead of a decent part it's just going to be same old same old, grannies & great-aunties telling me how I've put on weight. Should've grabbed my 100£, Thomas & the dog and gone on a holiday. Sad :-(

Today I am at home with the lurgy - I got rained on last night at the kennels and then the car trip home did me in. It's always cartrips like that, in cold & damp weather, that really wreck me so today I have a really sore throat and a temperature and will lounge on the sofa, play too much Mario and Plants vs. Zombies and just be full of glee.

Considering I often step on Fumble because she's between my feet it'll be interesting to cope with our pup. It was all set to go very wrong indeed - we couldn't reach him via phone so we just headed out but when he finally answered his mobile he said he was down South and could we come back another day? After some negotiating he said we could try and catch his wife at home so we went on. Well, when we arrived no one was in, only his hunting dogs greeted us with rather raucous barking, but thankfully wive was at Zumba with a neighbour and heard the dogs at said neighbours house so they came zooming in. She put Roxy, the mom, into the garden and she and her friend played with the pups and handed us the two wee bitches. I liked the wee one I was holding but the one in Thomas's hands really caught my attention - she just wasn't scared and her tail was wagging and wagging and wagging!

They were a rowdy bunch and there was a lot of nipping at shoelaces and tugging at trouser bottoms and tumbling over each other. The girl we picked kept on trying to climb back over the wooden enclosure to get back to us - I take that as a good sign. She was the rowdiest one of them all and I do wonder what I've let myself in for.

I was wondering about the set up as he had several kennels with dogs in his garden but I think it's ok. We chatted to his wife and she told us it was Roxy's first litter and she had her eyes and hips checked by the vet to make sure she wasn't passing hereditary problems on, the dad was imported from Rytex kennels which have a good reputation and they don't overbreed the dogs, either. She says Roxy will probably have one more litter in a couple of years and that's it.

Roxy was an absolute sweetheart. We met her at the backdoor and she scampered around the kitchen and greeted us with nothing but sweetness and insisted on having her belly rubbed - in fact we barely managed to get her back out in the garden, she was loving the attention way too much.

Overall I had the feeling of very happy working dogs that were well-behaved and well socialised and even the puppies, considering they were only 5 weeks old, were very calm and social even though their mom wasn't there when we interacted with them.

Meike has wee button eyes, a wee white star on her chest and three white toes on her right back paw. We pick her up on the 9th of September.

I now know TWO people who're auditioning for parts in the next season of Game of Thrones. I am II this far away from getting my Peter Dinklage autograph!

(I might've seen a couple of pages of script from an episode...... *whistles*)