Busy Diary!!!

Wow, my "Forthcoming Dates" are filling up aren't they?! I've barely got a quiet weekend until May, and then we move out! There are a lot of Preston matches on there because that's where Darren is from, so we try to get to as many matches as possible. Especially as they're doing well at the moment. We saw them playing Stoke at Deepdale last weekend - they conceded two goals in 7 minutes and then won it 3-2. It was a very exciting match (and believe me, I don't always come away from Deepdale thinking that!) So we try to coincide visiting his family with home matches, and squeeze in the odd away match too (I prefer being an away supporter, it's much more fun!)

We are going to L'Enclume for our anniversary. We were planning to go to the Fat Duck in Bray but - owing to it's many Michelin stars, rating as the world's best restaurant and owner Heston Blumenthal's current high profile - we couldn't get a booking. So after a bit of searching we found L'Enclume. We're staying there as well. We'll probably go for The Underground - a minimum of 20 courses in a meal that can last over 5 hours. We both love good food, and this is supposed to be an experience unlike any other.

In other news, today I got my first jabs before the big trip. I'm such a wimp. I haven't had an injection for 13 years and despite having three tattoos I was petrified. When it came down to it neither of them hurt (combined hepatitis A and typhoid in one arm, combined diptheria, tetanus and polio on the other). But a mixture of adrenaline, relief and euphoria after getting over my fear made me go doolally and I passed out. Three times. How pathetic am I?!!

An hour later I managed to feel strong enough to leave the surgery. I decided it probably wasn't worth going to work for the rest of the day. My arms have felt really weak all day - that's now subsiding but my shoulders feel like I've done 3 hours of yoga practice! Now I'm all protected against 5 nasty diseases. In a couple of weeks I go back for yellow fever, then a hep A booster in 6 months and I should be all good to go. Exciting innit?!!

New Tunes

A quick word about the new ROKR list. There are a couple of self-made compilations for a change. The Crash Course in Jazz is one that a friend did a few years back - she knows her stuff on the subject and did it for me. I've listened to a it a few times and really enjoyed it, but it's only just gone on iTunes so I thought I'd give it another spin.

MOLF stands for Marillion OnLine Forum. Every now and then an excellent fella nicknamed toodles gets everyone's names together and dishes out an address to each person. The idea is you make a compilation and send it to the address you're given, and then receive a random compilation from someone else in return. I think I enjoy the compiling more than anything! I've uploaded my gift to give it a spin. It's got quite a lot of prog-rock on it, so it's not really to my tastes but there are some good tracks I've not heard before. In particular Florida Keys by a chap called Pat Dailey is fantastic.

Most of the rest are Christmas presents. Emma Bunton's new album is really good, and I reckon Houses of the Holy is the best Led Zeppelin album. The Rain Song is absolutely stunning. My new job means a much longer journey to work, so I think I'll be getting more use than ever out of my choons!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Well, all the festivities are nearly over and it'll be back to work again in less than 24 hours. I hope you had a good one. Darren's son Jordan has been with us for the last week - it's always nice to have a young person around over Christmas. It's been a busy week too! We collected him last Saturday, taking in Preston v Colchester at Deepdale on the way. Christmas Day we went out to a pub for lunch. We spent a lot of the week playing on Guitar Hero on PS2 (truly excellent game btw). On Wednesday we went to Newcastle for panto. It wasn't the big professional one, but a smaller scale version of Dick Whittington. It was very, very good - I haven't been to panto for years!

Darren's parents came up on Friday to take Jordan home. Preston were playing at Sunderland on Saturday, so being season ticket holders it fell nicely for us all to go there (watching a match as an away supporter is much more fun!) They left on Sunday and the flat seems much quieter now. Peaceful. Jordan's a lovely lad but kids are hard work aren't they? I marvel at all parents who look after their children full time - I don't think motherhood's really for me!

So finally it's 2007. Last night me and Darren went to a local restaurant, Krimos. It really is the most fantastic food. We'd scoured the country for the bottle of bubbly which was recently voted as the best, so we came back for midnight to toast the new year in, catch the end of Jools Holland's Hootenanny and watch the fireworks going off around the North Sea coast that is our balcony view.

This should be a life-changing year for us. After two years of talking we're finally going on our worldwide travels in July. That's my main reason for starting this blog, so that family and friends can keep up-to-date with my adventures. I'm getting seriously impatient itchy feet now!

I'm also starting a new job tomorrow. The company I was temping for had to let me go - I suppose that's temp life for you. So a quick hello to everyone at Expamet who made my move oop North so much easier!!!

And Happy New Year to anyone who reads this. The years are whipping by so quickly nowadays (is that a sign of getting old?), I don't want to waste a minute of it. Hopefully this is the years that my life really starts to get exciting!!!