One More Sleep

That picture is truely awful, hopefully I will get a better one taken soon. Today I have not done a lot (again). Ffion went to the doctors again because her ear is still blocked and he gave her another course of anti biotics, she has an infection behind the ear drum apparently. I tidied up a bit then ran some errands, mostly delivering Ffion's Avon and getting some stuff from Tescos. I also called in for a coffee with my Mum and Wayne.

This afternoon I ran around after Erin then I finally got down to doing some packing for the weekend. We are off to Centre Parcs tomorrow morning so I thought I had better put a few things in a bag.

We had duck, garlic potatoes, green beans and red cabbage for tea tonight which was very delicious and tonight is going to be a quiet night in as we have an early start in the morning. I shall be absent till probably Tuesday, although you may see me around on Monday evening. Full details for our weekend away will be posted in due course with pictures of course.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

I'm Not Sure If I like it

I've been enjoying my time off so far. I have done very little which is really nice. Sunday I slept till mid-day then had a lazy afternoon in front of the fire watching films and drinking wine. Monday I went to Tescos for supplies then just lazed about watching TV. Tuesday I had to go to the Doctors for lady stuff and I finally remembered to finally pick up my dry cleaning. As I was leaving the doctors I had a very freaky moment. The lady walking in front of me suddenly stopped, turned and said to me.. "you are one of Julie's friends from Facebook aren't you?".... she had recognised me from pics on my friend Julie's Facebook page... scary or what!!

I invited Noel's mum and dad over for dinner, basically to butter them up to do Xmas dinner for me as I shall be working Xmas day again this year. We had a really nice roast lamb dinner.

Today I went to the hairdressers and decided too have a complete change and go dark. The pic is awful as I don't seem to be able to take a good pic of the hair yet. But basically I have gone from blonde to dark brown with purple highlights. At the moment I can't decide whether I like it or not, I keep seeing myself in the mirror and thinking "who the hell is that?" I also think it makes me look older. The horrid red top dosnt help either, I shall try and get some better pics over the next few days.

Tonight was REAL LIVE pub quiz. We were playing the Oddbars at home and the Whetham were the question masters. The quiz was very very good, unlike last time but unfortunately we lost 93 v 96. And guess who got the most correct answers..... yes yours truely \0/.

At the moment Noel and Meurig are crashed out on the living room floor after spending the evening in the hot tub drinking wine so I shall have to wake them up shortly and get them to bed...or I just might leave them here!!

Roll on 7am

Ok so we lost! I can deal with that.. honest I can. The first half was magnificent I really thought we might have a chance but alas it wasn't to be. The mighty All Blacks were just too good yet again. It is no wonder they are ranked No 1 in the world.

However, I did love the way the boys faced them off during the Haka (see pic) and refused to be the first to walk away despite the Ref urging them to, it proved we meant business... just a shame we couldn't follow it through in the second half.

Today was a something and nothing day. I slept until about 1.30pm then got up and tidied the kitchen before watching a bit of TV then deciding to wash the car which looked as if I had been rallying in it, due to all the pot holes in the lane which keep covering it in mud. That done I watched some more TV, I am loving Little Dorrit at the moment, I have taped it all and am watching it bit by bit, I love period drama and this is the BBC at its best.

I am finally coming to the end of my mini work marathon and only have about 7 hours left to go before I start my 16 days off \0/... I really can't wait. Tonight is very very quiet and I am bored rigid but I keep telling myself "not long now". No real plans for tomorrow but Noel said if it is cold and horrid, which I think it will be, we will light the fire in the other room and probably have a cosy afternoon watching dvds and drinking wine.

Oh yes and England lost 6 v 42 to South Africa (snigger).. so there is a god!!

9 v 29

BUGGERATIONS!!

An Unexpected Treat

I love Facebook!! Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in work, bored to tears, browsing my friends status' when I see Julie's "Julie is looking forward to going to the Cwtch tonight"... All I did was comment "I am really jealous" and lo and behold I get a message back asking would Noel and I like to go with them if I wasn't working.

Well it just so happens I wasn't working, so after a quick call to "He who must be consulted" I phoned her back and said we would love to come too, as long as you don't mind us gatecrashing your birthday meal!!.

So when I finished work at 6pm last night I did a quick change and off we went to St. Davids. We had a couple of glasses of wine in the house with Chris , Julie and Claire then we walked across the road to the Cwtch. I've probably mentioned before but I love the Cwtch, the menu is always really interesting and delicious and last night was no exception.

(Here comes the culinary bit). I had a cauliflower and cheese soup garnished with deep fried sage leaves and white truffle oil, which really lovely, followed by slow roasted belly pork with a pork and leek sausage and black pudding. The vegetables were roasted root vegetables, red cabbage, cauliflower cheese and garlic mashed potato. Dessert was a bara brith bread and butter pudding with Pembrokeshire Cream which was just sublime but very filling.

Chris and Julie go to the Cwtch quite often and know the owners and when we arrived there was a bottle of bubbly chilling ready for us and the table had been decorated with balloons and birthday confetti, which I had great fun making into designs (see pic). They also brought out a lovely cake (see pic) for her at the end of the meal but we were far too full to eat it, so it was taken home for later.


After a coffee and the usual little tube of Love Hearts which they always give you with the bill, we headed back to Chris and Julies for a few more wines and more chat before finally going to bed at about midnight.

Noel was up bright and early this morning (grrrr) and we headed back to Milford so he could get to work. I was feeling pretty tired so after a bit of tidying up I spent the rest of the morning watching tv with Ffion who was still off work with her ear infection. She was a lot better today but her ear had been weeping gunge all night.

This afternoon I slept from 12.30pm to 4pm and I am now back in work (yes again!!) for my first night watch. Only one more to go thank god!!

Yet More Work

All work and no play makes Karen a very tired little bunny!! I feel like I have been here forever. Three night watches in a row was hard work and not something I would have done out of choice, but I didn't realise that was how it would pan out until it was too late to say no.

But I survived!! My day off on Tuesday was spent mostly in bed sleeping. I got up at about 2.15pm and did very little for the rest of the day except make some tea and watch tv. Then it was back to work on Wednesday. Today is my second day watch so just Friday night and Saturday night to go then I can enjoy some well earned time off.

The picture above was taken by Alex (our resident IT chappie) and is of our jetty with the Chevron refinery and No. 6 berth in the background. It gives you some idea of the lovely views I have at night when the Haven is all lit up like a fairy castle and bears no resemblence to the industrial eyesore it is by day.

Ffion is not very well today. She had chronic ear ache all night and when I got up this morning she was sat in the living room sobbing her heart out. I really thought something terrible had happened to one of her friends, the way she was crying, but it was just the pain in her ear. Its amazing how quickly big grown up 18 year olds revert to being small children as soon as they are ill and want their mummies. My Mum stepped in this morning and took her to the Doctors where she was prescribed anti biotics and she is not tucked up in bed. Hopefully she will be feeling a lot better soon.

It's my butterfly day tomorrow and I really must try and get to St. Tescos and stock up on some supplies, I may even venture into Big Tescos in Haverfordwest as our store is getting worse by the week, with far too many discount brands and empty shelves. Anyway only two more watches \0/ roll on Sunday Morning!!

Work, Work and a bit more Work

I'm currently about half way through this week's work marathon. This is my second night watch and under normal circumstances I would be looking forward to four days off after this but as I explained before I have another night tomorrow night (overtime to cover for John Clarke who has gone to South Shields) then a day off on Tuesday which will probably be spent mostly in bed before I am back to work on Wednesday for another four watches (a swap to enable Keith to get a fortnight's holiday). But then joy of joy I shall have 16 whole days off!!

Friday night when I got home Noel got a chinese in and we had a quiet night in watching the rugby. Wales v Canada and as expected we won, but not as convincingly as we should have. It was a poor first half and definately not what I had been expectings... especially the kit.. what an awful colour!!



The above however was a brilliant try by Leigh Halfpenny in the final seconds of the game, a moment of pure class in an otherwise poor performance. We will have to do much better than this against the All Blacks next week!!

Saturday I did a bit of shopping with Erin in the morning before getting some sleep in the afternoon for my night watch. It was a pretty steady nights with jobs right the way through which made it go fairly quickly. Erin had been to a wedding in Narberth and stayed with a friend so she made her way to work at 7am and got a lift home with me (dirty stop out). Noel had taken Meurig to Cardiff airport at 4am as he has gone to Marbella with Doctor Pete for a week.

Today I slept until about 2.30pm and it would have been longer had it not been for next door's bloody doves dancing on the roof with hobnailed boots on (well that's what it sounded like anyway). I got up, watched some tv, hunted some eggs then came to work again.

It is now 1.35am and the watch is slipping past slowly. I shall sleep most of the day again tomorrow ready for tomorrow night, but at least tomorrow I shall get paid overtime!!

Berthing Plan

Another chance to escape presented itself today with Joe being in Port Control for the morning. So come 9am once I had handed over to him I rang Murco Jetty and asked if I could come down and observe the CARRY berthing at Murco 2.

I nipped home to collect my camera (as waste of time really as I wasn't allowed to use it on the jetty), then I headed out to the jetty. It was weird driving the quarter of a mile or so along a really narrow roadway over the sea. I parked up and walked down to Berth 2 where I met Graham (the Head Operator). My timing was perfect as the CARRY was just approaching the berth with two tugs.

It was really interesting watching the lineboats take the ropes from the ship and run them to the dolphins (mooring dolphins not bottled nosed ones!!). Erin's boyfriend Martin was on one of the lineboats but no amount of waving managed to attract his attention (I shall have words with him next time he is here). Bit by bit the ship edged closer to the berth, I could hear the Pilot giving instructions to the tugs and talking to the terminal to find out how much more he needed to maneouvre to get her in exactly the right postiion so that the jetty loading arms were lined up exactly with the ship's manifold (sorry if this bit is a bit technical!!).

Finally she was in the right place and tight against the fenders so I said my thank yous and made my way back along to the jetty to solid ground. I still had some time to kill so I decided to pay another visit to the Dry Dock because they had the sail training ship the LORD NELSON in.

Last time I was down there Paul told me to come back anytime they had something interesting in so I took the opportunity and got some great shots of this tall ship laid up in the dry dock.

All too soon I had to get back and actually do some work but at least it had broken the day up.

Tonigh we are watching the Wales v Canada match which so far has not been too brilliant but I have high hopes for the second half. Not too sure about the boys playing in yellow though.!!

Winning Ways

\0/ We are back to our winning ways at the real live Pub Quiz. We hammered the Admiral Benbow last night 60 v 34... and the A team lost just for good measure. Blodwyn wasn't too annoying last night although she did still insist that she was thinking of the correct answer after it was revealed (not a lot of bloody good that really!!).

We had a really nice meal (fillet steak, chips, salad and onion rings for me) and it was lovely to all sit down together, it dosn't happen often these days. Noel and the girls then left and I got on with the serious business of quizzing. There were some very hard questions again tonight especially on our local council (e.g. who is the Deputy Leader... silly things like that.. no doubt one of the members of the question setting team works for the local council!!).

I have been tasked with producing a GK and a Film round for when it is our turn to set the questions, this shoudn't be too hard to do given my vast collection of quizzes. I don't think we are question masters until the New Year so we have a bit of time to get our act together.

Today I have started my marathon set of watches. It is grey and wet and miserable and I didn't want to get out of bed this morning. I can't wait to get this lot out of the way and have my 16 days off, during which we will be undertaking the annual Smith family expedition to Centre Parcs.

Lazy Days

I have just enjoyed a very relaxing four days off. I have done very little, which while being incredibly lazy was also incredibly enjoyable and I was making the most of it as I have an awful week starting tomorrow. 9 watches with only 1 day off in between. This is due to a nights overtime on Monday (3 nights in a row)then Tueday off and back to work on Wednesday for four days... mind you after that I do have 16 days off .

Yesterday I did a bit of retail therapy which cheered me up no end. I bought four new tops and some christmas cards. I also spent a lovely couple of hours with my Mum and Wayne just chatting and drinking coffee. I also did some cooking in the morning and made some pate and soup.

Today has been really lazy. I made some cawl this morning for tea tomorrow and Friday as I am working then I actually hosted for a while much to mine and everyone elses amazement. This afternoon I have just watched TV and lazed around.

Tonight we are all going down the Ferry Inn for a meal, which will be really nice as I can't remember the last time we went out as a family. I will then stay behind and play quiz and hope we win. Blogging may be a bit sparse in the next few days due to lots for work but I shall try my best.

We shall Remember them

I cried twice today. Once at 11am while watching the ceremony at the Cenotaph (the Last Post gets me every time). And the second time was when I read Ellie's blog. Apologies for stealing your idea Ellie but I have loved this song since I first heard it years and years ago.




My Great Grandfather was at the battle of the Somme. Thankfully he survived and lived to be 90 so I had the honour of knowing and loving him (he died when I was 15). Our generation owe his such a huge debt of gratitude, as we do to my Grandfather and his generation for WW2. With only four survivors of WW1 still alive it wont be long before no one will be alive that actually experienced it, lets just hope we never let their sacrifce be forgotten.

Oh YESSSSS!!!!!

There are some days when it is the best feeling in the world to be WELSH and today is one of them.

All hail to the king... Joe Calzaghe!!

Just not quite good enough

Wales 15 v 20 RSA - the scoreline says it all! We just couldn't quite do it. The first game of the Autumn Internationals and the Six Nations Champions v the World Champions and a great game it was too. Rugby always manages to make me come alive and I was more interested in this game than I have been in anything for some time.

It started poorly, 10 points down in the first 10 minutes and the word "Route" was beginning to flash before my eyes, but he held firm, like those brave few at Rorkes Drift we held back the might of South Africa (humming Men of Harlech under our breath no doubt!!).

Our two new caps Andy Powell (much deserved Man of the Match - see pic) and Lee Halfpenny both had brilliant debuts and I can even find it in my heart to forgive Hook Bach for gifting a intercepted try to the Boks. The last ten minutes were incredibly exciting and if we could have only taken advantage of the last line-out who knows, we might have won. I understand Warren and Sean gave the boys a good talking to in the dressing room afterwards which no doubt contained a few choice expletives, lets just hope they listen and we come back fighting against the All Blacks and the Aussies.

I am in work tonight which I am not happy about as it is Adrian's 50th Birthday tomorrow and Noel has gone out to dinner with him and Rose, Phil and Karen and some other friends of Adrians. The weather is atrocious and the drive to work was a nightmare. I could only manage 10 mph down Hamilton Terrace because of the driving rain. It appears that it is going to be a quiet night in more ways than one. I shall just sit back and savour the silence!!

Exhaust-ed

When we moved Ffion's old car on the drive the other day Noel noticed that the exhaust was blowing a bit so this morning he asked me to take it to Haven Tyres for Steve to have a look at it. He was taking her new car back to Haverfordwest to have three tiny chips on the bonnet touched up so I decided to take Erin to school and Ffion to work in the Peugeot 106 (her old car).

Now it dosn't have power steering and is a bit like driving a tank anyway. Both girls were laughing at me all the way as I tried to haul it around corners etc. We managed to deliver Erin safely to school, so it was just a case of getting Ffion to work.

All was well until we got to the new speed bumps in Priory Road (the council's futile attempt at traffic calming!!). Poor Polly the Peugeot didn't like going over the bumps one little bit. As soon as we had gone over the last one the exhaust began blowing really loudly and we sounded like some manic boy racer revving our way along Priory Road with all heads turning to look at us as we passed!!

I managed to get Ffion to work ok and she stood laughing at me as I pulled away sounding like Lewis Hamilton on the grid at Silverstone. Then halfway along Hamilton Terrace disaster struck and the whole bloody exhaust dropped to the floor and began dragging along the road behind me. Should I stop and call someone? (no mobile phone with me so that idea was no good) so I soldiered on hoping to god that sparks weren't coming off the road as the exhaust scrapped along behind me like some terrible rusty tail.

I drove slowly (a rare occurrence for me) to the garage and pulled up outside while all the mechanics came out to point and laugh. They put poor Polly on the lift and had a good look at her underneath then ordered the new part. Steve ran me home and promised to drop Polly back when she was all better (excellent service or what!).

She was duly returned at about Noon and is now right as rain and ready to be put up for sale in the next few days.... anyone want a nice 2002 Peugeot 106, only 40,000 miles and a CD player?

p.s the new Mazda is called Milo (don't ask!!)

Bonfire Night

We went down to the neighbours tonight to let off a few fireworks.

One of the big rockets

Dawn with sparkler

Noel and Julian with sparklers

Another rocket

Small firework with firepit to one side (and Julian's legs)

Some video of one of the boxed fireworks

The big fountain firework

Low

I'm feeling pretty low at the moment. I have been for some time but it dosn't seem to be getting any better. I think its a combination of a few things, one being my weight, I have put back on all the weight I lost (nearly 2 and a half stone) and I am feeling pretty crappy about it. I know its my own fault and I don't need anyone to tell me that I need to lose the weight but I don't seem to be able to get my head into the place it needs to be to do something about it.

I also seem to spend long periods on my own when I'm not working and even times like now, with both girls out and Noel off with Meurig and there is nothing but the TV and a glass of wine.

Hopefully I shall soon get my head in a better place and stop wallowing in self pity

Don't you just love it when your cats bring you presents

I opened the garage door yesterday to put some rubbish in the bin and was greeted with the sight of this!!! Had to get the Father in Law in to remove it as I am a complete coward when it comes to dealing with rodents. Not sure which of my little darlings was responsible but it obviously didn't taste that good!!

Sunday Lunch

Saturday night was a quiet night in. I was very tired, not having slept in the day. I cooked bangers and mash with onion gravy for tea and then we settled in to watch X Factor.... what a farce... how on earth did Austin manage to go out and that Ricky Gervaise lookalike stay in, I was proper annoyed!! I think Diana is going to win, she is definately growing on me and was brilliant this week.

Yesterday we went to St. Davids to have lunch with Chris and Julie. We got there about 12 and before we headed to the Grove Hotel we took a walk up to their plot to have a look at the house they are building. It is really coming on and we were able to get a good idea of the layout etc. After that we went to the Grove where we had a gorgeous Sunday lunch, roast beef with all the trimmings. After lunch we went back to theirs and watched the Grand Prix, and consumed far too much wine. Both Noel and I crashed out at some stage and didn't wake up till midnight, when we went to bed.

This morning we were up really early and decided to head home about 7am. I had to take the car into Havefordwest for a service at 9.30am and as they let me have a courtesly car I went to Vincent Davies to have a look around and a cup of coffee.. they had some gorgeous Xmas stuff there but I resisted.

The rest of today has been spend lazing around watching TV and egg hunting, before I made some Italian Liver with braised red cabbage and garlic potatoes for tea. I am now going to settle down to watch Spooks and Paul Merton in India during which I shall probably fall asleep.

Evil Pixies and New Cars

Bit of a hectic blog today. Lots to report. Firstly last night was Halloween as everyone knows. Unfortunately some of us had to work (me, Ffion and Erin) but at least Erin got to dress up to go to work. Charlies were having a fancy dress party and she went as an evil pixie (which is very appropriate as Pixie is what Gary the Chef calls her). Her outfit was brilliant and luckily she is skinny enough to be able to get away with it. She also bought some spooky contact lenses on the internet which just added to the whole look. I think she looked brilliant.

This morning there was more excitement for Ffion as we went to Haverford west to pick up her new car. She decided to buy a brand new car a month or so ago so we looked around and she finally decided on a Mazda 2. It was duly ordered but she had to wait for a few weeks to get the model and colour she wanted. Noel had a phone call on Thursday to say that it had arrived but today was the first time she could get into Haverfordwest to pick it up.

I didn't go to bed this morning after work so that I could go in with them as I wanted to see her drive it for the first time. Noel's parents gave us a lift into the garage and then once the paperwork was completed off she went in her brand new car.

It is a gorgeous colour called Spirited Green and it really sporty looking as you can see. To say she is chuffed is a bit of an understatement

Once we got home I took these pics and then she took me down to the Ferry in for a spin to show her friends who were all working then we went to my Mums to show her and Wayne. I think she is going to spend the rest of the day driving around Milford showing it off, but who can blame her its not many 18 year olds who can afford to buy themselves a brand new car, but with two jobs and nothing else to spend her money on why the hell not!!