Remembering Mike today...1 year since he passed away

March 2005

and a HAAAAPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! May your year ahead be filled with love and happiness! I’m aware this is a little late, but better late than never, my dear friends!

Our Christmas was a lovely quiet one at home. All the housemates were out so Steven and I had the kitchen to ourselves where we cooked up a feast, drank port and enjoyed our first Christmas together! I was spoilt rotten by Steven and everytime I opened a drawer or turned around I had another present!! Very lucky girl!! Most were warm clothes/ accessories for the farm…I think he knows that if I’m cold I’m going to be whining in his ear constantly! To see photo's, click here and "view album as slideshow".

Our New Years Eve was a little more raucous and ended with me rubbing my hubbys back (and taking photo’s :-) )…we are both serious light weights, but i stayed away from the local ale! We went to a street party in a little fishing village, Polperro, which is not far from St Austell. We met up with Rob & Claire (from the Midlands), and were lucky enough to find a guesthouse which had a last minute cancellation, meaning we did not have to sleep in the car! We were warned that we would be the odd ones out if we didn’t dress up, so we grabbed any possible fancy dress clothing when we left home. Steven was going to be a girl…he looked rather fetching in my long skirt and sparkly blouse…but decided at the last minute to go as a Navy Seal, in his wetsuit! I found my wings and wand, and went as a fairy…surprise! ;-) Rob and Claire bought some accessories and Rob made a good Elvis Presley while Claire was a sexy cowgirl! We started off at the guesthouse playing card games and sipping beer (and the occasional tequila). We headed out a bit later and went from pub to pub having a drink at each, and everyone met in the town square at midnight for the countdown. Absolutely everyone was dressed up and really friendly and we had an absolute ball!! I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up there for next new years. To see photo's click here and slideshow.

Since the last time I blogged we also have been on a Murder Mystery adventure in Mevagissey! It is a really cool idea…click HERE to check it out… Somebody’s clever idea, which doesn’t cost much to set up and is a hit!!! I need one of those!! Highly recommended if you enjoy walks, exploring new places and a little bit of mystery. Do it like we did...an hour before sunset, to increase the excitement cos then you have to race around to find clues before dark! To see photo's of our day, click here and slideshow.

We have also recently acquired a second hand laptop, thanks to Tom and his mom…so I daresay I’m going to be in touch a little more, although I do have to go to town for internet access, so I’m not going to always be online…so don’t expect me to be the whiz kid I was when I was working in London and was free to email 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. I also think that this time around, I may skip getting too involved in forums, etc as this seems to consume my time (and my thoughts) unnecessarily, and helps me to get worked up over things that don’t go away whether I get worked up over them or not. Anyway…that’s my new years resolution!

Actually I didn’t make any official resolutions this year, but, by February 2008 I want to have a business up and ready to run so that we can go spend 2 months in Africa and come back and work from home. This of course means paying off the credit card I swore I’d never get, within the next few months! Steven and I spent our coastal walk to and from Maenporth on the weekend brainstorming and between us I think we’ve come up with 2 pretty good ideas. I’m trying to teach myself web design (so I can set up and market), and we have a year to research these things properly, but they’re low cost to set up, and I don’t see why they wouldn’t work! It would also be good for one day when we want to have babies, to have a business I could run from home:-)

In the meantime we are both working hard. I am still working for Qura, and enjoying it most of the time. The only part that is not enjoyable is the politics…but that’s life! I have been promoted to Team Leader with one of the clients, and am busy doing my NVQ2 in Health and Social Care. I should be finished with this in the next month or two as it is going pretty fast, and hopefully a pay rise??? But we’ll see…this is Cornwall! Steven has a new job caring for 2 boys, one who has severe learning difficulties, and I think he is wonderfully suited to the job! He is going to make a great daddy one day!!!

Mum & Donna are coming down this weekend for a couple of days, which we are really looking forward to! And then next week we move to the farm!!! Yes, our WWOOFing is about to begin!! We were accepted by the first farm we wrote to, Carthvean Farm, which is in Porkellis about 15 minutes drive from Falmouth. It is owned by a lovely couple and has loads of animals! No animals are killed as the couple are Buddhist and prefer rather to adopt animals and save battery hens, etc…which I think is rather cool! We are going to be living in a big room in their beautiful farmhouse and working as much as we can on the farm around our other jobs. We’ll be feeding the animals, possibly giving the goat milking a go, planting trees, putting up fences, making jams, chutneys, etc…I will keep you posted!!!

Kiran emailed a rather interesting website which he has put together, which includes organics and more info on WWOOF, etc. Check out the page related to WWOOF HERE. Kiran has a wonderful website on organics, check it out here

This month so far has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, remembering being in South Africa a year ago and having to say my last good bye to Mikey who passed away on the 23rd. I was looking through the photo’s last night, and have so many good and wonderful memories of him. He was such a special friend to so many people…all of whom are on my mind loads. And of course, my thoughts are with Mike’s family tons! It’s hard to believe he has been gone for almost a year already!

On the weekend of the 2nd-4th of Feb we’ll be in London, to say farewell to dear Jojo before she leaves us for sunny South Africa, where she will apply for her ancestral visa for the UK and HOPEFULLY hurry back! That’s if Africa doesn’t tug at her heartstrings and kidnap her! So if anyone’s in London and would like to meet up, maybe we should plan Saturday or Sunday afternoon at a pub or something! Let me know your thoughts! Bradley has kindly offered us accommodation at his home in Shepherds Bush.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR TOMMORROW JOJO!!

Another rather large change…I have cut my hair, pretty short and boyish. And I rather like it! I do feel like a rebel and a sinner :-) (no thanks to the fear based upbringing) but as they say…a change is as good as a holiday...and I have always gotten rather a thrill from rebellion. It's amazing how different people react when they see me. The older generation tend to say something like :"what have you done to your lovely hair?" while younger people once they get over the initial shock, like the look of it...unless they're lying, of course! Oh well, i like it! Everyone asks me why I did it? I don't know...i've been daring myself to do it for years and my hubby encouraged me. I wanted a new look, a change, and I wanted to do something a little daring.

So fair thee well, my friends, and speak soon!! Hopefully see some of you soon!!!!

Lots of iryness and fairyness