Plea for information on the safe return of Mustang's stolen equipment

On Sunday some equipment belonging to P's band Mustang was stolen from the North Road area of Darlington.

It is described as a six unit flight case amplifier:
• Unit 1 – Corg DTR 1000 tuner
• Unit 2 – phonic power conditioner
• Unit 3 – Marshall GMP...-1
• Unit 4 – TC electronic G Major 2
• Unit 5 – BBE sonic maximiser 362
• Unit 6 – Marshall 8080
 
The units have a chrome coloured face and can be individually removed from one another by removing the screws: it is very heavy to lift.

 

If you have any information please contact Mustang by email mustangband@hotmail.co.uk or via their Facebook page or via their Twitter account.

A reward has been offered for information leading to it's safe return.

Monday - my worst day of the week

Everyone hates Mondays.

It's a known fact.

I hate Mondays more than anything because it is the start of the new week - the start of yet another five days at work, followed by the weekend, and then BOOM soon enough it's flippin' Monday again.

I am sure they come around much faster than they should do.

It hasn't helped this weekend that I've not been very well, so I feel that I have missed the weekend in a blur of housework, washing and drying, ironing and hoovering.  All whilst feeling unwell. 

I never did what I planned to do all week, and that makes me sad.  I never had time.

On Sunday I have to keep myself busy otherwise I end up thinking about Monday.  I just hate it.  I really do.  It's my worst anxiety day when I think about everything I have to do in the week - all the pressure is on me, and sometimes I just think I am not well enough to cope with it all.

Plus, nothing ever any good happens on a Monday.

For now, me and my Monday loathing will continue.

Do you like Monday? xx

B's Laugh of the Week #7

OK, so we have a joke for you this week, which was pinched off the end of a very old episode of The Vicar of Dibley which we watched on UK Gold....you know where the Vicar tries to tell Alice a joke, which she never gets.

This one B thought was very funny.  M wasn't *quite* so convinced.

What is brown and sticky?

A stick!

I never said it was a good joke!  lol

Please feel free to share a BETTER joke with him! xx

Homework - the journal saga

Each night the children bring home reading, which they do once I am back from work.  Now they are a bit older, they don't read aloud to us, but prefer to read quietly to themselves.  I have to record in their reading record books how much they have read.  B does not like the books he gets from school - he thinks they are boring and some of them are just so easy for him, so it's a real struggle to get him to read sometimes.  M just gets on with it, sometimes she will read the whole book and other times just a few pages.  I let them choose.  Now they are older there is no pressure for them to read the whole book.

The weekend homework is the nightmare.  Each week they bring home reading, usually some maths questions in the form of a worksheet and the dreaded journal.  The journal is where they have to write about something - anything.  It can be something they have done during the week, a story, about a news event - ANYTHING.

But you know what?  B can NEVER think of ANYTHING to write.  EVER.

I'm serious.

We have battles about it.  M is again fine, she gets on with it, no bother.  I can give B numerous suggestions but no, they are all boring and he wouldn't know what to write. 

And then, finally he will choose a subject and write as quickly as he can about it - no capital letters, incorrect spellings and phew - he's done!

I dread to think what the teacher thinks when she gets to his book.  Last week he decided that again, he had 'nothing' to write about.  And so he insisted upon drawing a cartoon.  This didn't go down too well as her note says 'I don't understand what this is meant to be'.  Ooops.

That's another battle we are having too....I tell him to do something and he doesn't.

You know what? Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.  I should just let him get on by himself.

Silent Sunday - Sunday 19th May

 

 

What happened this week

It's been a while since I did a nice simple post about what happened during the week, so here we go.

Monday seems so far away now, but I can't think of anything exciting which happened on Monday anyway.

On Tuesday we found out that M would be grading in Taekwondo on June 9th.  B will not be grading this time as he graded in March, with M's last grading in December.  The younger members of the class usually grade every other grading - of which there are four per year - June, September, December and March.  This meant that we have had to rearrange our Race for Life as the dates clashed, so my girls and I will now be doing this on June 15th - our wedding anniversary.  Tuesdays are really busy days after work as the children have their Taekwondo class, so I have begun to take the opportunity in between dropping them off and collecting them to do my weekly shop!  Tuesday was also the day that P and B found out that Sunderland were safe from relegation into the lower league.

On Wednesday I went back to Slimming World after an amazing week and lost 4lb.  I am now only 5lb away from my target.

On Thursday Bronte had a school trip at nursery where she went to Hardwick Park with her class.  She has been looking forward to this all week.  She had to take a packed lunch (which she helped me make) and she had a great time.  I also worked late on Thursday as I needed to finish work earlier on Friday, so nothing really exciting happened.  Hubby and I have been busy discovering The Walking Dead series on DVD, which he has borrowed off a friend.  We are now into Series 2 and we are really enjoying it.

On Friday I finished work earlier as P had his first hip physiotherapy session (which he was supposed to have straightaway when he had his hip replacement back in November), so I spent an hour or so cleaning and getting up to date with the household jobs - oh joy.  I then went to school assembly in the afternoon where it was M's class' turn to do a little assembly about electricity.  Bronte fell asleep in the middle of it!  In the evening I then got caught up on all the washing and drying.

Today we went to a fundraiser event for KDanz which was in the local town this morning.  M promised her friend at school she would go along to support them, but sadly her friend was not there when we were.  We got down nice and early and ended up with a couple of bargains -including two fully clothed Moxie Girls for 20p for them both, plus some books for 5p each.  There was a bouncy castle and various raffles and games and so the children had a turn on whatever they liked. They got some pretty good prizes.  B was given some money to spend as he didn't want to go on the bouncy castle, which the girls did....so he went off on his own and came back with a huge haul of goodies!   Fingers crossed they raised lots of money.

This afternoon, I have finished the rest of my jobs including making P some more Primal cookies.  He is doing very well on his Primal eating and has lost over a stone in two weeks.  Primal is basically no wheat, grain or sugars.  I don't think I could last long on it because it's no cereal, pasta or bread.  But it seems to be working OK for him, he is eating lots of meat and vegetables.

The only thing is that I have been feeling unwell for the past day or so, I think I might be coming down with something.  My throat hurts and I am tired and achey.  This is not good!

And so the rest of the weekend leaves me with the following jobs - changing the beds and if I can be bothered defrosting the freezers.  My work is never done!  Hope you have had a good week? xx

Review: Country Kids socks

Following my post last week about B's 'days of the week' socks, B was asked if he wanted to review some socks from Country Kids, who sell kids socks and tights.  Of course he did!

Within a day or so, B was delighted to receive a package containing:
A pair of Real Dinosaur socks in colour olive (RRP £4.50)
A pair of Pirate socks (RRP £4.50)
A pair of Triassic Age socks (RRP £4.50)
and two pairs of slipper socks (RRP £7.95 each)

B was very impressed with the designs on the socks, and he took his 'job' of reviewing very seriously.  He thought that the socks were comfortable and just the right size.

M was a little jealous of the lovely socks, so B kindly allowed her to model this pair on his behalf.  She thought that the designs were 'pretty cool' too!  She liked the Pirate socks the most.

 

In fact, B even went so far as to allow her to wear a pair of slipper socks.  Both B and M liked the slipper socks.  They each had a funny face on.  M thought that the fact that they had big squares on the bottom was very good, and it stopped her from slipping over.

B liked the fact that he could run in the living room on the laminate floor and not fall over whilst wearing them.  B was very gracious until bedtime when he demanded she give him the socks back!  Oh well, the graciousness lasted a short while, at least.

Overall, I though the socks were lovely.  They are great quality and I love the designs.  B was impressed and I think his friends at school were too.  Even though he is now 10, he still loves dinosaurs and of course all boys love pirates.  :o)

Disclaimer: we were sent the socks detailed above free of charge, however this is our honest review of the products in question.

Video: The BIG Spag Bol debate...!

In our family, P makes a wicked Spaghetti Bolognese (aka Spag Bol).  I make a pretty good one too.

Here is Bronte saying whose she likes the best!

 

But apparently, she tells me this, and P something quite different....and so the debate goes on!

Isn't she cute though? xx

Slimming World - Week 40

Phew.  It's been a hard few weeks, where to be totally honest I have been off plan, and trying to eat healthier. 

My Mum came up for a week, and although I didn't have too many nice things, as she is on Slimming World too, I did have maybe one or two too many naughty things and well, I sort of lost my way again. 

Previously I have pretty much stayed around the same weight since November and at more than one point I had gotten to within 4lbs of what I think will be my target weight....and then once again I had a bad week.  So I missed a couple of classes as I knew I had put on, and wow, that is harder than you think to pull back a week, as one week soon turns into two...and then you have a mountain to climb.

But anyway, I think all in all I ended up putting on 5lbs so I was a bit further away from my target weight than I would have liked.  P found out he had gallstones and decided to go Primal again, so I was left pretty much with no excuse except to get back on plan.  And get back on plan I did.  I went back to basics and detailed EVERYTHING I ate for a week, and made sure I took lunch into work with me, although I am still not having breakfast I am at least eating something during the day again.  I made sure I chose a Healthy A choice and a Healthy B choice and do you know what?  I felt much better for it.

I knew I had had a good week, and I resisted stepping on the scales before my weigh in tonight and I was delighted (and gobsmacked!) to be told I had lost 4lbs!  It has been a while since I have lost anything with a couple of gains and a fair few maintains and wow, that was pretty good wasn't it?  More importantly I knew I had done well as I had stayed focus and more importantly I hadn't cheated - or even wanted to.  So now, once again I am back to within 5lb of what I think will be my target weight.  I hope I can continue to stay focused as I would love to get to goal within the next six weeks.  Fingers crossed.

Anyway, how are you all? xx