HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

One more day to go, then it's the holidays!

I've been looking forward to time off work for what feels like a long time, although I will come in after Christmas to do some admin stuff.

So far, most days of the holidays have been booked by friends and family to EAT!! So goodness knows when I'll get time to work on these pesky horses of mine - they definitely require work as their manners are just awful.

I had my Christmas Party on Saturday night, which I think went well - I enjoyed myself. Now the house just looks as if a bomb hit it. I have piles of glasses, plates and pots still to be washed. Sorry, I know that is disgusting, but I have been washing a small pile of dirty dishes at a time, as I'm knackered and to be honest I'm feeling a bit lazy, but it will all be finished by tomorrow night.

On Sunday, Chris and I, Caroline & Duncan were invited to Sunday brunch at Niall & Carla's. That was a fantastic afternoon. We were fed and watered with buck fizz in great style and the food was delicious. We all ate until we nearly popped! Then we went home without offering to do the washing up, we just gladly waved goodbye and disappeared! Back at home I did manege to find the energy to clear up the mess from my party and then I sat in front of the fire, watched an awful film which made me cry then went to bed!

We are out to dinner tonight, and delivering Christmas presents on the way. Tomorrow, we are taking the boys to lunch, then meeting friends at the newly opened Nardini's in Largs. Christmas day - lunch with family. Boxing day, dinner with more family. Just the thought of all that food is making me feel queasy!

Have a wonderful break. Enjoy yourselves. Take Care and lets hope that 2009 brings us all some relief from this global CRUNCH!

XXX

OCTOBER + NOVEMBER - I'm trying to keep up to date!

I am trying to catch up on this diary / blog. I'll start with this past weekend and work backwards.

Well, what fabulous weather we had last weekend! Cold, dry and sunny, with beautiful hoar frost making our little part of the world look like a winter wonderland. But it is all down hill from then - the rain is back causing havoc on the roads and pavements due to black ice. All very nasty. Thankfully I rugged the Dartmoors last night.

On Saturday, Imogen re sat and passed her Kennel Club Good Citizen's Silver Test. I guess we will have to attempt the Gold test now. Fleur failed her Gold test and was beginning to be fed up with puppy school, so we stopped going to classes. So we'll see if Imogen can beat her on the obedience front! Highly unlikely ... but ... you never know.

What happened in November? Well, I'm driving a hire car. This is a story that actually starts at the beginning of October and has dragged on till now - December. I guess it has become quite a important thing in my dull life at the moment. Well that and the credit crunch.

At the end of September, my beautiful Italian import Alfa Romero 147, 2L T-spark decided that enough was enough, after 97,000 miles on the clock, the head gasket had "went" again. This meant that I had to continually fill the water bottle every few miles as the engine was constantly at boiling point. All rather scary.

Eventually I was persuaded to trade her in rather than have her repaired, which I duly did. I had to wait a week or should I say, seven working days for the cheque to clear and the garage do a mechanical check on the new 147 alfa 1.6 L car that I agreed to traded down to. It is red and has 3 doors. It is a 2004 model with only 35K on the clock. A good deal and it was. Of course, this meant that I had to hire a car for a week before I could take possession of the red alfa.

Two weeks to the day, driving home from Mum's, the car went bang! Well actually it sounded like phiss. And the engine was dead! The AA man thought that the timing belt had gone - and I thought, Oh No, not again! The car was towed away and I have not seen it since. The timing belt was part of the problem, but the valves had managed to put holes or a hole in the engine which means it is useless. So now I'm waiting to find out if the garage can find a reconditioned engine to put into this red car. The reconditioned engine was their suggestion, and now six weeks later I'm past caring any more.

So this car fiasco has been the major event in my life over the past few months. Of course I'm regretting not spending the money to fix the car I had. Ach, well. Life is full of regrets, and no doubt I'll find time to moan at a later date. So in the meantime, the garage has now given me a car to get around in.