Thankg Goodness For That!

And so the decision is made; the dice rolled; the coin flipped. And thankfully, the answer is a happy one.

Christmas is saved. Christmas day will be great and I can go back to my normal state of ever so slightly, over excited, child like anticipation. Hooray, hooray!!

This is going to be a very short blog as I have a lot to do now. All prep for Christmas was put on hold while the events of the last couple of days unfolded. Which now means I have a house to clean, pressies to wrap, turkey to buy, veg to buy etc etc.

So this is me - signing out and wishing you all a truly splendid Christmas xxx

Bye Bye Jude

So it was my leaving party on Saturday night. And true to form there was a theme. I know some people find themes tedious beyond belief but I've kind of grown up with them. My mum was whizz at making costumes and props and I guess she's passed that on to me (although my skill is more in the wearing than making!)

The chosen theme was 80's. This is a truly great theme as you can look as hideous as you like and it''s all in keeping. So having donned a particularly ghastly stripey dress, neon tights and staggeringly high heels I captured the 80's slapper look perfectly.

I can honestly say I had a ball.

When I moved down here 11 years ago I was lucky enough to move into shared accommodation which is where I met Debs. She became the lynch pin in my social circle and all of my first southern friends stem from her. She is the missing link (in the kindest possible way).

So there we were, a group of friends, shaking our ass, jumping around, and spinning sugar like we were still teenagers. When I first moved here, our house parties were legendary. We had bouncy castles, my mate Ant aka Skinny Boy Evans took to the decks, there was punch, nibbles, fancy dress costumes dripping from the ceilings.

Back then, many a party would continue to the wee small hours until the moment when Skinny Boy played the last record and then simply lay on the floor and slept where he landed to show that the party was indeed over.

Now, many of us have kids and we all have mortgages and grown up jobs. Our parties are still great fun but tend to end a little earlier and happen on a far less frequent basis - like once a year as opposed to every couple of months.

I will miss this wonderful group of people and all my other friends down here enormously. As I said in my thank you speech on Saturday (which was thrust upon me with no prep!) many of these friends have helped me through some of the toughest times in my life. And now I'm embarking on a new, exciting and much anticipated stage of my life, I hope they will continue to be part of it. After all, the road systems run both ways in the UK.

With that in mind, I'd best get planning the house warming - no doubt it will be a fun filled, costume drenched and boozy affair and we wouldn't have it any other way!

Kate's Wish

I follow a few blogs and one of them is written by someone called Kate. If you get a chance check out her blog diamonds and coal, it's really very good.

Anyway she has asked all her readers to re-post the sixth photo they uploaded onto their profile site so here is mine.

It was taken on Ainsdale Beach near Southport and features my good friend Mushy's dog Sadie. She's daft as a brush but utterly gorgeous and loveable. Mushy also has a blog -Classic Album Review by Paul Robert Mullen which is also very good.

So if you haven't yet discovered Kate or Paul's blog do it now. And while you're at it, why not upload your sixth picture too!