It’s also easy to forget that, as the old saying goes, “life is not a rehearsal”.

In a previous post I mentioned that you need to make an effort with friends but I think that can be applied to any area of your life where you want it to be better.

I have a pile of ironing that could be climbed by the best mountaineers and it would take them the day to reach the summit.  It’s a thankless job that never really finishes.  But if it’s not done no one has any clothes to wear (or they do but they’re very creased!).

Housework when you have children is like “shovelling snow when it’s still snowing”.  I have to accept the fact that it’s never going to be perfect but without some effort it would just get worse.

I like it when friends say my house looks ‘lived in’ and ‘comfortable’ it makes me feel better.  I know my friends don’t care what my house looks like after all they’ve come to see me, but I’m sure secretly they still want to know that the cups are clean and they’re not going to find mashed potato down the side of the settee.

So what’s my point to this rambling.

If you don’t lift your head above all these things and take stock, life just passes by.  I’m not one for going out on a regular basis – mainly choice along with getting to a certain age when evenings are for sleeping!

However, last night we stepped out and went to a ‘gig’, ‘concert’, call it what you will.  We went to see The Temper Trap in Birmingham and without doubt had one of the best nights out we’ve had for a long time.  More details and piccies in the music section but what a fantastic group.  Although my husband and I were in the ” higher age range” bracket we didn’t feel at all uncomfortable and when the music started felt about 20 years younger.

For that alone I thank them, but more so for sounding even better than their CD which can’t be said for many groups these days.

But it was all the people we came into contact with as well.  Carlo from Birmingham Promoters, the company who organised last night’s event took time out to say hello and highlight other bands we might like to see coming to Birmingham next month.  He also asked us what we’d thought at the end of the night too.  Great customer service Carlo.

We enjoyed it so much we’ve already started looking at the recommended bands for another night out.

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1. Importance of Friends

As I don’t know her personally, only on a ‘hello’ basis I didn’t feel like I could ask if she was okay.

It was during the pick up later that I ended up being part of the conversation where she spoke about her daughter leaving home at the weekend to go to Leeds University.  It all made sense.

For many parents around the country this weekend, it was the next phase in the development of their children.  This is probably the most dreaded (in most cases) point in a parents life – when the children leave the nest albeit to University.

It’s a big wrench and and an organisation nightmare in terms of making sure they have everything they need including food to last them a good month or so.

The build up can be exciting, but at the point of taking the children, setting them up and leaving them on their own  for the parents to go back home alone can be a huge anti climax.

If anything those parents should feel proud.  They’ve helped their children to get to a point where they have been accepted by a further education institution and are obviously ready for this next phase themselves.

So to all the parents who have experienced the emotional trauma this weekend, well done and good luck.

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1. Torchwood Children of Earth Final Part

If you were to stop and count up how many friends you have, how many would it be?

Of them how many would be your really close, tell all friends.

A friend, as the definition says, is generally someone we like, have affection for and would be loyal to. Maybe it’s someone we have known for a long time, a childhood friend, someone you have met in similar circumstances, or it can be people at work that we click with. And every friend has a value to you (hopefully).

Sometimes it’s too easy to let people slide out of your life, friendship takes effort.

I count myself extremely privileged because I have two friends that I just couldn’t be without.  They are my saviours and are there to share ups and downs with and we make an effort to catch up at least once a month face to face.

That’s not counting any emails, texts or phone conversations. Having met up this week, we realised that we hadn’t seen each other for a meal as a threesome  since April which surprised us.  This immediately brought the response, this is not to happen again and in our case it now won’t.

With other friends, life simply seems to get in the way ie the daily chores, our own agendas.  This struck my husband and I last night when we were out driving.  We were very near to some friends new house (they’ve been in it 2 years!) and I’d not seen it.

My husband pulled up outside to show me and one of our friends was on the drive.  He immediately walked over and invited us in for a coffee.  We vowed to stay 10 minutes (as we’d just caught them coming back from shopping) and nearly two hours later after catching up on the last year (which is when we had seen them previously) we went off with a further invite to come back with the children.

A simple bit of luck catching them outside the house, but if we hadn’t made the effort to drive past in the first place, we wouldn’t have had an enjoyable 2 hours catching up.

It’s not to say we will be seeing them on a regular basis,  after all we do lead different lives, but the most important thing is we’ve reconnected.

The moral:  If you value your friendships, take time out to make the effort.

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1. Feeling Younger
2. Words From The Wise

If someone said you can use the toilet but you’ll need to be barefoot when walking through the wet – would you?

If someone said you can have a shower with about a dozen other people, again strangers – would you?

On the face of it you’d probably say no.  But today I said yes to all these things in the name of entertaining children during the school holidays.

I took them to the local swimming baths.

I dislike public swimming baths especially when they are heaving with people like today.  However in the name of love (as I pointed out to my children) I took them to the local baths because they were desperate to go.  Suffice to say they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and I counted the minutes to home time.

The amount of chemicals that must be in the water must be unbelievable.  I say this because on returning home I noticed that the nail varnish I could not remove from my toes had effectively been cleaned off in the chlorinated water.  Result!

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1. Stop Laughing

After a lot of laughter, she said I was a dag.  Australian slang for nutter really.

It now opens up the whole ‘what do you wear to a concert’ question.  The last concert I went to must have been 20 odd years ago – oh dear.  The fashion police aka sister and niece suggest the grunge look and funky shoes.  Well the hair already passes that one, but I would hardly call any of my shoes funky,  more ‘nice and comfortable’.

Oh well, I’ve got 2 months to figure it all out.  Any help appreciated.

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1. The Temper Trap – Conditions
2. The Temper Trap – Live in Birmingham
3. The Temper Trap – Conditions

What was the funniest moment for you throughout the series and which bit made you either cringe or shut your eyes?

Let me know in the comments section and I’ll poll the top moments.

For me the funniest moment has to be David trying to confess his murders with no success.

The moment that made me cringe and shout eewww was when David’s mom fed him chewed up sausages.

There’s also a poll at the bottom of the home page for you to say whether or not Psychoville should be made into a second series, please vote.

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3. Psychoville – The Finale

Earlier this week I was amazed to read a news story regarding local residents calling for the level of noise from a local school to be monitored.  I can’t even remember what part of the country it was in.

Loud louts you may think, coming home from school and being unruly.  No, residents were apparently complaining about how loud the laughter was at dinner time.

Now obviously you would need to live there to appreciate how bad the situation was, after all how annoying must it be to hear children laughing!

But isn’t it better to hear the sound of laughter than shouting and screaming.  What is the world coming to?

No related posts.

However, I’ve been watching Personal Affairs, just because I can’t help but want to take the mickey out of it and at the other extreme Torchwood because the story line and acting have been soooo good.

Just my opinion of course.

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2. Torchwood Children of Earth Final Part
3. Personal Affairs Episode 3

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1. Funny Characters

So if you do see any (like a question mark in a diamond!) please ignore it.  I have my techy looking into it.  Apparently it’s a problem that can occur within WordPress.

If you’re really bored, see how many you can spot.  I will of course post when we’ve found out what was causing it.

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