Good Bye & Good Riddance

I for one am happy to see the back of 2008. It has been a difficult year in this household & I've had enough.

In January I had an appraisal at work. I had exceeded my sales target by 214% so expected a pat on the back but instead got a total b*llocking for something very minor indeed. I nearly walked out there and then. I started looking for another job.

In February DD went skiing in Austria with her school & hurt her knee. She couldn't play football or swim for ages but went back to swimming. She's only just recovered from her injury nearly a year later. She has stopped the football.

At the same time as this Blue was in & out of the vets. I waited for DD to get home before we had her put to sleep She was 7 years old.

Not long after that we got Oscar & things started to get back to normal, albeit with a puppy.

In May I got really sick. So sick that I had to put both dogs into kennels for 10 days.

Fast forward to July. I handed my notice in after enduring bullying for over 4 years & had found a job locally. I took two weeks unpaid holiday in between jobs to cover part of DD's summer holiday. At the beginning of this time I had a nasty experience. I didn't mention it here as the police were involved. A police caution was issued and that's that.

Then 10 days later I got ill again

So I was in between jobs with a 2 week sick note due to the stomach surgery. I couldn't afford to be off work for 4 weeks (2 already taken as holiday) so started my new job a week later than originally planned and one week after surgery. I was in pain but didn't need to walk far or lift so managed with lots of pain killers.

6 weeks into my new job and it was announced that the company was to be sold. I was furious as I had left a job where I had been for over 4 years and now had no security so I started looking for another job. It went down hill from there.

Once the sale went through we had a 'pure survival meeting' and were basically told that if sales didn't pick up we'd all be out. Plus I was in an 'internal room' without any daylight and found that very hard. My line manager was now the site manager and turned into a little Hitler shouting at everyone including me.

The new company name was p8rnographic and I had a problem with it. I was finding the whole situation VERY stressful and with DH's support resigned at the beginning of December.

Then DH got sick and a few days after he came home from hospital we had to say Good Bye to Pam.

Yesterday just two days left of 2008 I had to take Annie to the vets as she was passing blood. She is still there as she has severe von Willebrands Disease. Today the news was better & hopefully she'll be home soon.

The good news is that apart from everything that happened above we're all ok. My weight loss has reached over 4 stone and I want to reach my target weight in 2009. I feel like a new woman and am running regularly with Oscar.

So in 2009 I'm hoping that we won't lose any pets. That none of us will get seriously ill & that I get sorted with a job soon. I have an exciting opportunity that will hopefully mean that the latter is sorted but I won't know for a few months.

I also intend to lots of knitting mainly for me

Back in the land of the living

Thanks to everyone who left a comment or emailed me after my last post. I'm back at work now & the dogs returned home yesterday after 11 days in kennels. Both have lost a lot of muscle & Oscar looks like a shaggy mutt but I'll get them back up to scratch soon. I'm gutted as I'm going to have to start my running from scratch again but not yet as I'm tired after half an hours walk at the moment.

Some knitting has been happening over the past week:


Twin Rib socks in progress

but not a lot progress on this:


Rowan Tapestry crochet scarf

I've been spoilt rotten over the past couple of days due to a couple of parcels arriving. Part of one was a purchase of a Goknits sock bag from Socktopus but there was more included which was a wonderful surprise. However the photos have yet to be taken so you'll have to wait I'm afraid.

So as a thank you for Alice at Socktopus a photo as promised of one of the trees in our garden. It has the most gorgeous purpley red leaves & looks absolutely stunning in the sunshine.


Purple Norway Maple

Hip Hip Hooray!

It's my birthday today & as always St George's Day to boot. I really wish it were a public holiday & then I won't have to use a days holiday to ensure that I don't have to work every April 23rd.

When I went on the Rowan course I took advantage of the £1 balls of yarn & access to hundreds of books & came home with my birthday present(s):


RYC Cashcotton DK in cool


RYC Cashcotton DK in pool

I have a variety of patterns earmarked for the Cashcotton DK in both RYC Summer & Cafe book one.


Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky in Mink to make Hardy from JB38


Jaeger Aqua cotton to make Annie from JB34

I also picked up some books from Rowan for my birthday:


birthday books

and more from Up Country which weren't for my birthday but had to come home with me anyway.

I've just got to shift more weight so that I can start making all these garments for myself! I've been running 4 times now & am enjoying it DH & DD got me a pacer watch (in addition to the yarn above) & I'm now running 90 seconds at a time. Oscar is still walking but I'll get there in time for him to run with me properly when he's a year old. I'm off now to have a shower before making the most of my day off work & will be visiting the LYS this morning

I did it!

It had just started to rain by the time I got the dogs out of the car but I didn't chicken out & have started running! If you can call it that. Oscar loped alongside me without breaking into a run but speed 'might' come once I'm fitter I hope I can get out of bed in the morning.


I'm not stupid: I stay inside where it's nice & warm when it's raining!

'Must have' pattern

I'm pleased to report that my weight loss is continuing & I've now lost just over 3 stone As a reward for when I finally reach my target weight the patterns are still coming in thick & fast. Recently I was chuffed to bits to be able to add this to my library:


Patons street smart

Due to The Yarn Harlot effect and Brooklyn Tweeds' adaptation of The Urban Aran it is very hard to get hold of & even worse it's not available here in England However I was able to buy it from Yarn and Thread by Lisa & after paying by paypal it arrived from the States in just 5 days
Lisa kept in touch me with via email & the whole transaction was very smooth & effortless & I'll be using her shop again. She can be reached here.

The postage for two copies was the same as for one so I bought two & split the postage with a friend which made it more affordable.

Now that I've lost a substantial amount of weight I've decided it's time to 'up the pace' as it were & start exercising more. I already walk the dogs for an hour every morning before work on the lead & they get either half an hour on the lead or running free when I get home mid afternoon. It's in this 'time slot' that I've decided to start doing more as I can't fit anything else in due to DDs' busy sporting & social schedule. I'm going to follow this plan when the dogs are off the lead so that Oscar doesn't do too much as he's so young & will start tomorrow as long as it's not raining. Now I've announced it on here I've got to stick to it!