Lighting up the sky for Sian

I went to our local Polo ground to light up a lantern for Sian O'Callaghan.  Even though I was tired I knew I could not miss it.  I felt like I had to do something.  Seeing over thousand lanterns in the sky was a beautiful sight and I am sure if Sian was looking down she would have appreciated the gesture.  The event was amazing, at times sombre and at times uplifting that an entire community came together to mourn a young girl's tragic death.  A few times people nearly had their scalps burnt by the lanterns.  The lanterns are tricky to get them up in the sky. 

It made me feel proud of Swindon.  A lot of people slag Swindon off as it is not a pretty place in the Town centre and it is not a City.  One thing we do have is a strong sense of community.  The mood in   the Town is one of shock and utter horror that one of our youngsters was taken from us.  I went out Friday night and got into a black cab on my own.  I was scared getting in a taxi.  Apparently, one girl was questioning a cabbie about his ID and he was getting annoyed with her.  There were loads of police out on Friday night. 

The most shocking part of the murder of Sian was that she did nothing wrong.  She did not put herself in any danger.  She got into a licensed cab with someone she knew.  That is what the majority of us can not get our heads around.   It has made us all hyper paranoid.  It will take Swindon along time to forget this.  They still don't know who the other body belongs to.

I was glad to see when Chris Halliwell was formerly charged that over 100 people turned up at the police station to demonstrate the anger we all feel for this abhorant man.  Aparently his Children have left Swindon for fear of reprisals.  At the end of the day they have not done anything wrong, and yet there is another example of his actions devestating another family.  Why did he do it?

Sian O'Callaghan....missing.

In the early hours of Saturday morning Sian O'Callaghan went missing.  I am really shocked about this as it happened a five minute walk from my house.  One girl from my work was out with her that night and another is a good friend of hers.  Everyone is very worried as to what has happened to this young girl.  We know she left the club on her own and that half an hour later her mobile phone signal was picked up 12 miles away in Savernake Forest.  We can only assume she either got into what she thought was a taxi, or got into a car with someone she knew. 

I can not believe something like this has happened so close to my home.  I had a police officer around to ask me if we heard or saw anything suspicious.  I did hear a drunk shout in the early hours of the morning which is not unusual on a Saturday night.  I wish I would have got up and looked out the window.  Friends of mine were out at that time and they are all thinking what if I saw her and could have done something.

The aftermath of it is there are lots of what I can summize as hoax text messages going around saying there have been other incidents of women trying to be abducted into vans.  There is definitely an air of uneasiness in the town.  I am going out this Friday night and it makes you fretful to go out with your friends.  This goes to show that you should never walk home alone no matter how close your house is from the pub or the club.  We are all praying that they find her alive even though we know as time goes on it is less likely.

Red Nose Day - knackering!

I am amazed that Red Nose Day raised a record amount of cash and all of it is not in yet.  At work I organised lots of events to raise money.  I watched the programme where the celebraties went to live with people in Africa and found it heart breaking.  Kids living on the streets with nothing. 

I stupidely suggested car washing, thinking that the guys in Training would do it.  My boss then said she would do it, and then I thought I have got to do it to.  We washed 6 cars in the rain.  Much to the dismay of my boss's newly straightened hair.  There were 5 of us washing the cars including our Managing Director.  It was totally knackering, I definitely earnt the cup cake I bought after all my efforts.  We raised £70, not bad. 

In the afternoon I set up sing star in the restaurant and made people pay 50 p to come and watch singers.  At first no-one was joining in and I thought "Oh no this is going to be a complete flop".  There was only a few customers.  However, I had been cajoling people into for weeks.  A new girl called Nikki sings in a band and promised to come up.  After about 20 minutes loads of people turned up and Nikki took to the microphone and another really good singer called Sarah.  I was relieved, it actually turned out quite well, however, it was a bit touch and go.  What is that saying you can take a horse to water but you can not make it drink!  Part of the reason we were doing it was to raise morale.  For 3 years we have not had a Christmas Party due to the economic down turn.  Most people took part in dressing up.  I was dressed as a red crayola (crayon), there was also, a blue one, lilac, pink and brown.  Genious idea (not mine) it was funny and cheap.  There were people dressed in their pyjamas, a croup of monkeys, beach wear and people wearing lots of red wigs (including the guys). 

I was running around like a mad banshee woman all day to make sure everything went smoothely.  I hope everyone had fun and on Monday I will tot up exactly how much we raised. 

Next weekend I am doing the mad March Hare for Breast Cancer Awareness dressed as a bunny girl.  My friend bought me the outfit as there will be several of us dressed up for the 10k race.  The outfit does n't leave much the imagination I would call it really more whore bunny!  I love doing stuff for Charity.  I find it really humbling.

Coldsore....ouch!

Coldsores are only as I can describe them as hideous!  From the moment you feel the tingle you know what is in store for you.  I know the name says sore and it really is.  They are sore, tingle and itch, even though you can not scratch them.  They are the most infuriating little things.  I always get them when I have had a bad cold or in this case the flu. 

I almost don't want to leave the house as you can not forget they are there as they are sore.  I feel like they are a beacon on my face and I look to see if anyone I am talking to is staring at them.  I have found my own remedies for getting rid of them quick smart.  I use nail polish remover on them and it does dry them up within the day.  I found this speedy remedy by searching on the internet and thought give it ago.  I found Zovirax makes no difference to them what so ever.  This time it appeared on my lip.  At first it looks like botox gone wrong as your lip swells abnormally on one side.  Mmmmm trout pout not a good look.  At about day 2 it looked like a giant bogey on my lips, really unattractive.  Your skin on your lips is so delicate that it cracks and bleeds, bloody lovely.  I never leave the house without lipgloss on but during my coldsore episode I have had to go out with a bit of vaseline on, hardly great for being uber glam.  They really make you feel rubbish.  You can not forget about them because you can feel them throbbing and generally being a nuisance.

At day 4 it is now a scab on my lip.  If anyone asks me what it is I will lie and say I got it caught in a zip!  Ewe err misses how naughty am I?

Ps I found the nail polish idea on the internet on a website so sue them not me!

Actually, another good remedy I found on the internet was a cure for a verruca.  I had a stubborn verruca for years.  I tried everything to get rid of it Bazuca, Bazuca freeze spray.  Nothing worked, stubborn little git.  I then googled and found clear nail varnish as a cure, and it worked.  I starved the little git of oxygen.  What an earth did we do before the internet, brilliant and saved me loads of money.

My weird week

My week this week has been completely chaotic.  It started on Monday when this stupid woman nearly knocked over my Daughter walking on a pavement.  She swung her car onto the pavement without looking and I had to push my Daughter out of the way.  There were 3 other Children on the pavement including my Son.  I shouted out her, "Be careful, you nearly knocked my Daughter over,", then my friend behind me joined in.  The woman in a navy Clio said nothing.  I have seen her at the School I don't think she is British, possibly Spanish.  I glared at her a few times at the School and she looked suitably embarressed.  An apology would have gone down nicely.  I did mention it to one of the Dad's at the School who happens to be a police officer.  He told me to tell him if I ever see her doing anything else again.

Later on that day I had a conversation with my Daughter's Teacher about an incident that happened in the playground.  I was polite as always and her response was defensive and argumentative.  How delighful!  I will bring it up with her on the next parents evening that I found her to be totally unnecessarily defensive and felt like I had an argument with her.  If she gets shirty again I will patronise her with my HR head on and tell her she needs coaching on how to talk to parents.  This is her second year of Teaching.  In my house the builders knocked down a wall they did not need to!  Not a problem though as they are putting it back up.  The dust or is soot was messy.  Then the Sky TV did not work!  That was Monday.

Wednesday night my Daughter was sick 5 times in the night.  Thursday I did not go to work and had two Children at home with no TV!  Luckily, the Sky man came after lunch to fix it and said it was nothing to do with the building work going on, purely coincidental.  I thought someone up there is having a laugh at me!  Out with flu last week and then off with the kids this, goes down brilliantly with the boss.

I know have a coldsore which I usually get after I have had a bad cold or the flu.  It is like a hangover from being ill for me.  They live up to their name, sore!  Anyway, I have a method that I found on the internet which gets rid of them within days.  I put nail polish remover on them, it dries them up a treat and works for me.  What normally takes a week goes in a few days.  Much more effect and cheaper than Zovirax.

My saving grace this week is that our extension is coming on fast.  They have been doing it since 19th January and we are water tight already!  Now for the messy phase.  What was delightful on Friday was there were two young fit guys doing my roof, it took all of the hassle of the week away!

Ps Please don't hold me accoutable if you try the nail polish thing and it does n't work out for you, you are on your own to try it!

Colour tester paint pots!

I have been decorating my bedroom and became frustrated at those colour charts and paint tester pots never looking the same on the wall!  Therefore you end up buying loads of tester pots and driving backwards and forwards to B&Q to try and get the right one.  My bedroom theme is going to be French boutique.  Your probably wondering what that is and so am I?  I kept getting theses colours and putting them on the wall and they were all Lilac.  I did not want lilac and none of them looked lilac in the catalogue or on the front of the pot, but on the wall, oh yeah lilac, yuk!

Then I went backwards and forwards to B&Q about 4 times until I found my parfait colour!  Yes Parfait, I can not describe it, sort of a light grey with a hint of mauve (not Lilac).  I am really pleased I perservered with it as the colour was exactly what I was looking for, perfect.  I must admit it was quite a stressful experience at times and yes I nearly did give up and paint it magnolia. 

My Husband when we decorate makes me laugh he uses kitchen utensils for his DIY.  We have gone through several spoons as he is ruined them polyfiller.   His biggest mistake was using one of my Laura Ashley mugs to put gloss paint in!  Not the cheap Asda ones that cost 67p, no he used the ones that cost £6!  Luckily I managed to salvage it.  He also uses my tuperware, I have of course complained to him about this but he still does not take any notice.

His timing of decorating is great coinciding with all the building work going on at the moment.  Last week my wardrobe was emptied into a large pile and I could not find any of my clothes.  My bedroom was like living on a boat with no where to stand.  Fortunately, I only had to endure that for a week and could my put my clothes back, at least I can walk around my bedroom now.  However, it is still not finished only one side of the room is finished.  We had that horrible 1970's anaglypta paper in the room which is usually put on to hide bad walls.  Luckily enough though they were okay underneath.  I think this weekend we are going to do a joint effort to get it finished, fingers crossed!

This week I was struck down with the flu!

It all started on Wednesday feeling tired and not my usual 100% full of beans.  I soldiered on during the day, until night time descended and my glands were sore!  Here we go 3 days full of feeling rubbish.  Then the aches came on and the having no energy to do anything.  Even getting up to get a drink was an effort.  Instead of feeling hungry I would feel nauseas and not feel like eating as my glands felt like they were trying to burst out of my body.  However, I did manage a meagre piece of toast to keep the feeling sick at bay. 

Day 2 consisted of me planting my butt on the sofa and watching day time TV.  Day 3 was again another day of sitting on the sofa and getting bored of watching daytime TV.  I did not even have the energy to plug my laptop in and blog.  Now I am on 5 and I have felt a lot more energetic today but as the evening has gone on my glands have become sore again.  I am sure I will be fine for work tomorrow.  I had forgotten how energy zapping the flu is.  The weird thing is out of my immediate family I am the only one who has had it.  How does that work when I live in close proximity to 3 other people?  I would love to know where I picked it up from.  My dear Cousin taut me a trick to get rid of colds and bugs, take raw garlic!  Yes I know it makes you stink but when you are desperate you will do anything to feel better.  I chop it up like little tablets and swallow it with water.  It is a phenomenel thing they say if you take half a clove of garlic every day when you have a cold it can half the time you have it. 

My training for the Mad March Hare has been rubbish this week with not one run which is frustrating.  For 2 days all I ate was a few peices of toast.  Yesterday, I cooked a roast dinner which was my goal of the day.  My Daughter loves my roasts and I had bought it all at the beginning of the week, plus I thought all the vitamins from the veg would do me some good and the Children. 

Onwards and upwards for next week!