The witterings of an Essex girl

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Lila Bean
Happy Birthday to you.

She is 4 today! I can't believe how old she is getting. It seems to be going so quickly. She'll soon be moving out of home. There's already certain things she (and Red) don't need me for. I barley get to do anything for Red. He was so happy with himslef this morning that he came downstairs and got himslef a drink while I was a sleep.

Awwwwww I miss them both already. They have only been gone a few hours- I have to wait a week before I see them again.

As I passed my test yesterday (I still can't believe it- I keep expecting them to phone up saying they made a mistake!) my fiance is taking me to the cinema to watch King Kong. I didn't realise it was going to be 3 hours long though! I'd rather watch The Producers! Maybe next time.

I spent the morning having lunch with my friend Carl whom I ahve known for years. We used to work at Pizza Hut together and have been friends ever since. We always meet up when he's home from Uni (Leeds Trinity whatever!) and have lunch. We used to go to Pizza HUt lol but this time we didn't. It was nice to see him again and have a chat. He bought me a bottle of wine as a Christmas present too. I always seem to buy him alcohol related gifts! It's his 21st in a couple fo weeks so I'll have to think of something special for that.
Any ideas please let me know!

Anyway I am going or I won't be ready when the old man gets back.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year.

To my wonderful children: We miss you terribly and we hope you enjoy seeing your Daddy and can't wait to see you soon. We love you very much. Have a lovley time xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx kisses from far away te puth nga larg me qithe zemer dhe shpirt pergjithmone xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Good afternoon everyone. Yesterday was such a busy day that I thought I would let you all in on my day (22nd December 2005)

So... here's my day.....

Firstly we celebrated Lila Bean's birthday today as she is going away tomorrow at 8am and if we didn't do it today we wouldn't have had time.
She opened all her presents and cards this morning

She got:

A CD player (she was so excited to have one of her own)
A Peter Rabbit audio book
A doll with a microphone
A doll in a car
An incy wincy spider game
A Bratz colouring in board
A Lil Bratz sticker maker
A plastic dolls house with furniture and dolls
A track suit
A pretty skirt and top
A little cute bag in the shape of an elephant with some chocolates
A cute mouse with a dressing gown, slippers and a bag with chocolates

I think that's all so far- she'll get her dad's presents tomorrow along with his sister and mum's presents.

We did her cake earlier and she got to blow her candles out.

I also went to Fat Fighters tonight and lost 1lb! It's not much but I managed to win Slimmer of the Week and I won a bottle of wine as I was the closest to the target we set for ourselves 9 weeks ago. I also won the raffle but I thought I'd had my fair share of prizes so I didn't take it and told Sue to re do it so someone else could get something.

But, the most important thing that happened was...
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are you ready?
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are you sure?
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well ......................................
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I took my driving test today and
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I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With 14 minors, freezing cold hands from the nerves and the worst drive of my life! But I have my licence at last! Now I can stop using my indicators, mirrors or speed dial as I have noticed that none of you experienced drivers seem to use them!

Argh only a few more days left. I am getting edgier by the minute as the excitement/ fear seeps through my body. Will this one be as bad as the last two? Will this one be THE one?
There is nothing more I can do to prepare myself this time- qe cera cera (actually I have no idea how to spell that but you get my drift- don't you?!)
You would think I would confident this time around knowing that I have already been through the hell of it twice already- surely this one can't be as bad as them!? Can it????????? Please no let this one be the one! Besides it's getting so expensive! How can they possibly justify the prices these days? It's astounding!
Anyway I'm sure it will be fine. You know what they say- third time lucky. Well let's hope that's true for me. i don't thin I could take another one!
ARGH even talking talking about it has got my heart racing and I'm struggling to breathe- what am I going to be like on the day if I'm like this already???!!!!!

I'm sure I'll be fine, everything will be fine and this time I'll pass that driving test so you all better watch out because I'll be let loose on the roads soon enough!

I was woken up briefly on Sunday morning by the house shaking. At first, in my sleepy state, I thought it was my 6 year old son getting into his bed. He has a steel framed bed that makes a lot of noise when he climbs the ladder. On second thoughts though I thought that the noise was too loud for just one small boy and then my sleepy thoughts turned to thunder. Not one to be bothered by thunder and lightening I went back to sleep and subsequently forgot about being woken at such an ungodly hour (I wasn't aware of the time but it was still dark out so it was early- I have since found out it must have been around 6ish)

Then I received an email from my friend who lives 4 doors away from me asking if I had felt the house shake at 6 that morning. It was then I remembered Red and his noisy bed waking me! I did think it was a little excessive even for him.

As you must know by now what had woken was in fact an explosion at the factory in Hemel Hempstead about 10 miles away from me.

Today I had a phonecall from one of the mum's at my son's school telling me that the school is to be closed for tomorrow due to health and safety reasons. The black cloud billowing from the explosion site is heading our way and can be seen over the Uni and across from the town. We have to keep our children in and not let them breathe the air that may or may not be polluted- they keep feeding us different stories.

All schools in the county, as far as I am aware, have been closed for tomorrow at least.
It's really upset my son who loves school and totally thrown my plans for a little christmas shopping out the window. My daughter's nursery is also closed so it looks like all three of us get a lie in tomorrow.

Let's just hope that the fires are put out quickly and everyone affected gets back on their feet as soon as possible.

I still can't believe that I was the only one in my house who felt the house shake. I was 10 miles away and it scared me. I have family (or ex family) in Hemel Hempstead who were thrown out fo their beds by the force. Imagine what those right on top if went through. Scary stuff. No wonder some though a plane had crashed on them!

Can't think of anything interesting or witty to use as my heading- sorry. I'm having a bad week!

I had to buy a new printer on Sunday only to have to take it back yesterday (Wednesday) because there is a fault with it!!!!!!!!! Thankfully I managed to get a replacement so it is now up and running and printing, scanning and copying lovely!

My little boy Red went to see the new Harry Potter film with his Granddad and his wife (the Granddad's wife not red's!). They came back saying it was quite scary in parts but Red hadn't found it scary at all. I was a little worried he would as he's only 6. Tough as old boots obviously. Unless it comes to eating something he's not sure about then he's whiny!

I have an essay due next week (actually I have one due tomorrow and another due next week but I have done those) that i haven't written yet and it's beginning to stress me out. i should have started it by now. looks like I'll be locking myself in the study/ dining room until it's done over the weekend.

My little brother is coming to stay with me for a few days so he can babysit while I go to London to do the research for my dissertation.

I can't wait for Christmas- even though I haven't got the children this year for christmas day (I'll have them New Year) I'm still excited about it. I bought my parents a photo album and I have puts lots of photos of them when they were little and then as they grew up- wedding photos- pictures of me and my brothers when we were little and then pictures of the grandchildren. I can't wait to give it to them. I had to get my brother to steal the wedding photos for me though!

One quick question before I go:

Is this an example of favoritism or am I just over protective:

On card to my son:

Hope we have a good Christmas

On a card to my daughter:

Have a great christmas

What do you think? Favouritism or all in my head?

I'll let you think about that one. Btw the cards were sent by the same person ( I know it sounds obvious but I just wanted to clarify it!)