An update for September 2021

Yesterday was my 45th birthday, so I figured I should commemorate the day with an update.

Last week, Mister Pick and I spent a day for ourselves while Jack was at nursery. It was a glorious day so we walked across the Tyne, had breakfast at Quay Ingredient, visited Eldon Square, Grainger Market, and Stack. It was such a nice way to spend the day because we hadn't gone into town just to have a look around in a long time. (Not until before I was pregnant, that's for sure.)

I updated the podcast recently to mention what a hard time I was having with letting Jack stay at nursery for full days now. I was glad to have the time to ourselves, but the guilty of being at work made me feel that I loved money just that little bit more than my own child. But I am going to work part time again and just trying to keep my chin up and hope that nursery is helping Jack with his development as people keep telling me. (He has a lovely nursery and a great key worker, so I know he's in kind, capable hands. I just miss him during the day, which I'm assuming is extremely normal.)

Other than my mummy updates, I'm still working on my Team Leader class at work and that, hopefully, will be done by the end of the year. I've also decided to do some business classes online, just to give myself plenty of credentials on my resume. It's funny to think that as much as I hated school when I was young, I still keep wanting to be in education in my 40s.

Writing wise, I've still been slowly working on the first in my young adult romance series. Bullet journal wise has been slow as well, but I did purchase a new notebook for my birthday which is made with kraft paper rather than regular 160 gsm dotted paper. (I'm actually really excited about this one.)

Travel wise, we've been to Stephenson Railway, Lightwater Valley, East Grange Farm for the sunflower trail, and the Art Adventures summer term sessions. I'm so grateful that we can go places as a family after a long time of not being able to do anything outside of the house.

For October, we have Halloween, pick your own pumpkins, and continuing autumn term toddler classes to look forward to. I'm excited for the falling leaves, the crisp air, and the anticipation for Christmas that's less than 100 days away.

9 More Sleeps Until Christmas

Yes, that's right. It's almost time again.

This year, I've been really embracing the Christmas spirit. I've been listening to music in the car, wearing my tacky jumpers, and decorated the house like it's Santa's grotto. It must be having the new house, and knowing that we'll have plenty of room for everyone to hang out. (By everyone, I mean me, Mister Pick, the dog, and the two cats now. We still have our boy, Jake, but we've also added Elle to our family.)

For our Christmas build up, we've been to Beamish Christmas, as usual, and we went to the Christmas market at Grey's Monument. This week coming will be our events at work, so, yeah, Santa is coming to town. Soon!

I’ve still been working on my bullet journaling, but the plans of world domination with my blog and plethora of eBooks will be on hold once again. I applied for an apprenticeship at work, and I’m pleased to report I got a place. Next year will be different with that plus the new systems we’re implementing in the libraries. It’s going to be different, but a good change of pace.

So here’s hoping that Christmas will be a nice time to relax and get back on track, so the New Year can be full of new adventures.

Seahman and the Great Exhibition of the North 2018

Getting back to things we’ve done lately and failing to keep up -- we travelled to Seaham, Durham about a month ago. Actually, Daisy had been here before we ever were because she attends doggy day care and they sometimes take her on little adventures when it’s warm out.

That dog has an awesome life.

At Seaham, there is a nice little town to walk around, plus big named shops like Asda and a Costa. We went to the marina (picture above) and went on a rocky section of beach before finding a nice, soft sand beach. Daisy was overjoyed because there were lots of little kids for her to try and play with, so we had to try and entertain her otherwise. Plenty of places to get an ice cream and plenty of places to relax on a warm, sunny day.

Aside from the beach trip, we went to the Hancock museum a couple of times for the Great Exhibition of the North event that they have on all through summer. We didn’t see the fireworks at the Quayside or anything on the first opening day, but what we did see was quite cool.

First the museum has all sorts of new exhibits, one of which was the first edition of a book that I read as a student at University of Central Florida way before I ever imagined being a British citizen. The Blazing World is one of the first sci-fi books and it was written by a woman so, take that old, dead white guys!

The other night, we went to a talk that Steve’s old company did about their work on the Marvel movies. I was a proud gal that night when I saw so many kids and students asking the guys their advice on how to get into concept art.

Then in town we came across an art project where people could rename streets on the map of Gateshead and Newcastle. Of course, I named on street after my parents, and Steve named one of the streets after the allotment that we finally got.

Now, as of today, I have not been as active in the allotment as I was when we first got it. It’s an absolute mess, which I’ve been told by a few people, is totally normal. We’ve spent a good month or so, pulling up weeds. Some of it is mare’s tail which our allotment manager told us is a right pain to get rid of. Still, we have some vegetable plants from the library (they do all sorts at my work!) so we’ll have some summer vegetation around the weeds. Yuck.

Also, we saw Elvis Costello at Newcastle City Hall on the 25th of June. That was very cool and since Steve loves his music so much, I was glad to give him the tickets as a late birthday present. Elvis had to cut his tour short due to health reasons and we wish him the very best of health. The librarians I work with are eager to go along next time to see him again in Newcastle.

Right now, Steve and Daisy are on a stroll while I have the flat to myself for a bit. Our house purchase is going at a slow pace, but as far as we know now, things are just carrying on as normal. I figure they’ll give us a date to move, and we’ll panic because we’ve been laying low for a while and just waiting for the official green light on everything.

Other than that, I’m trying to use my bullet journal for keeping up with my blog posts and my writing progress, so both of those things are scheduled for today. I have one post down, now I need some work on my book to keep me up to date.

Until next time!