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Saturday 8 October 2011

Good times at last?

The good news is that R's work has been constant. :-D He's been doing silly hours (3am starts silly!) but he's loving it...... Barmy, but there you go! I checked up today and it's been one year and one week since he got paid from his last job, so we've spent exactly one year trying to survive on just my wage. Phew! It's been hard, but we made it!
I did make the mistake of going shopping today. lol. "Please don't make me go shopping on a Saturday! You won't like me when I get angry". Yup! I apparently got a bit aggressive because I was queuing at the Paper/Tobacco/Lottery tills and one girl was trying to run three tills, with more than a dozen people not knowing which till to queue at. I got bored of waiting but as we were leaving there were 7 members of staff stood around the main tills. (I'd gone straight through the main till - there were no queues at those tills!) so I felt obliged to say something.... DS1 wandered off and pretended he didn't know me..... hehehe!
The other good news is that R has sent off his licence for his HGV, so that could be back soon. It might not - he could have to go back to the Consultant to get his Blood Glucose readings confirmed; but after 8 years without it we can at least see the light at the end of that very long tunnel. Common sense finally happens in the UK!
DS2 is very happy too because it looks like it's all systems go for him to go out to Los Angeles for Christmas to see the "lovely American Daughter". If R's licence comes back in the next couple of weeks we could even afford to help with getting his ticket earlier and he could be out for Thanksgiving too.
And of course a list of crafting goodies for him to get while he's out there. Now do I need a "Smash" book or not? Or maybe two? I think I need to watch some of the video's out there before I decide if I need any at all? :-) I think the new Project Life will be on the list - I've had the idea that my genealogy stuff could work with Project Life.
I am feeling a need to really get back into crafting - at long last. I thought crafting was what helped me stay happy, whereas what has happened is that I've discovered I need to be happy to craft. Odd. I can't say that the depression has gone, but it is certainly easing. So who knows what I'll manage tomorrow and Monday?

Finally some photo's: First three are the new lock gates going in.  £20,000 worth! Another set is needed further up the canal really, but one set at a time. These are for the lock where the canal trust have their new base, so a bit of PR here I think?
Here are the one's that were taken out:



The top gate is in. The guys are just making final adjustments before they unhook it from the crane...... If the hinges aren't connected properly you're not just going to be able to get in the lock chamber and lift this thing back into place. :-)


The bottom gates in place:


And finally, along with the rest of the country we've been enjoying the late summer heat wave. Or not enjoying in my case (I hate heat and sun; the early morning temperatures were plenty enough for me). I took this first photo at about 7am, and the temperature was already over 16 degrees C (61F) by the time I'd finished work this particular day it had reached well over 30 degrees in our sheltered little spot on the canal.

But the advantage of the weather is that the insects seem to have had a second chance and the result is this next photo.... getting good at this now! :-D


It is raining at last. Very little, in this area at least, this year. The boat crew had to cancel the trips last week, and when we told people it was because of lack of rain they look at you as though you've been living in the Sahara desert for the last 6 months. Seriously - we've had very little rain this year. Sad as I am, after 9 years of working alongside the canal I've started to judge the amount of rain we get by the water levels in the canal. Haha!
Any more good news? Oh, yes! I've just booked up for us to go away in the caravan in a couple of weeks. Not the site I would have liked (CAN anyone tell me how to get a booking for the CC Rowntree site?) but not too far out of York. Not been there for years, it's going to be my birthday weekend, so I thought - what the heck, I really need a holiday, even if it's only a long weekend. So I booked. Need more practice with the manual camera settings before I go though.
Well that's it for now. Wish me luck with the crafting. If I manage to actually do anything I'll post again soon.
Thanks for dropping by - especially if you managed to get this far........ :-) Speak soon.
J.x

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