Ebay

I love ebay.

I love the fact that I can buy anything and always think that I get a bargain whenever I manage to win items (from a digital radio to hoover components).

But I've slowly started to notice a darker side to the ebay market. I now watch items for days and then only bid on them at the last second so that no one else can bid for items that I want. Thus dashing the hopes of the person who's had the leading bit for days, and my own hopes of sleep (why do they always end at midnight?)

And even if an item is a bargain at £80, that's still £80 of my hard earned cash that I have to part with to get said item. So it's either eat or have ebay item.

Therefore the morals of my ebay story is that although the best thing since sliced white bread, both do have some health risks.

Tidying Up

Why is it that when I ask him in doors to tidy up the lounge while I clean the bathroom/kitchen etc he always puts his CD collection into alphabetical order??!

Political Turmoil

As a girl growing up in the 80's I consider Margaret Thatcher to be a bit of a role model. The first woman to become prime minister show all us your women that anything they can do we can do better.

In hind sight we now realise that she pretended to be a man to suceed and that many of us can enter the male dominated industries and suceed as women.

So politically I'm a tory (not extreme right wing I'd like it noting), and have managed to cancel the Wife's vote out for the past three elections.

None of the political leaders float my boat. Not one of them is a serious contender in the long suffering ideal world.

Tony's screwed me over for the last two terms (I have no children, paid tuition fees and can't find a dentist within 8 miles of my home!).

Michael Howard, well I'm with Ann Widdicome on this one!

Charles Kennedy - Nice guy, but leader of the UK, come on your having a laugh

So in an ideal world I'd spoil. I'd go to the ballot boxes as women died to get me the vote and write something witty all over my voting paper but not cross any boxes........

Then Kilroy-Silk arrived in Erewash!

I've always lived in areas that seem to vote sensibly but now from the eight candidates standing for my vote three are the far right.

So I'm met with a political dilema do I hope that the rest of Erewash sent Kilroy, the BNP and UKIP packing back to where they came from, or do I have to vote tactically to try and stop any of the muppets representing me?

And then if the area has all three of the far right standing does that mean that I'm in the political minority anyway and that they would be representing the majority (please god NO).

So really I think that what I'm saying is that I'd like an educated Erewash to vote with it's heart not for Kilroy, BNP or UKIP even if their vote is for the Millitant Elvis.

What's the difference between in laws and outlaws?

Outlaws are wanted!

Don't get me wrong I like my inlaws but at times I'm not sure that they feel the same way. Firstly my mother in law sobbed when we told her we were engaged.. she also wore black to my wedding (subtle hint?).

Now with your own parents you can tell them to f@*k off and stop trying to change your life into their's but with in laws you have to take what ever little bit off info they give you and be helpful.

Now to the real issue... in a slightly inebreated state at New Year I agreed to go on a two week holiday with the inlaws driving across the states. Not too bad you say! Yes, but I also agreed to plan and book the whole thing from scratch.

So having booked two weeks holiday for 50% less than the brochure holidays covering the same thing I handed the information over to them pleased with myself havign sorted this holiday to let the two of them rip the whole thing to bits and complain about what I've done.

The urge to leave them here or push them into the grand canyon on holiday is growing on a daily basis.

So why, do they hate me? or am I tired and letting them piss me off for no reason?

Cat

When we originally looked at getting a cat she had to meet with strict criteria -

1. Female
2. Between the age of 1 and 4
3. Not too violent
4. And most importantly not frightened of the huge alsatian next door

So when the cat went out to play for the first time this weekend, initially attached to a piece of string to ensure that she didn't run directly into the main road and away from the house, it was a relief that she didn't seen too concerned about the barking and the general noise from next doors dog.

The only concern was when she saw his ugly dog face hanging over the fence and she fluffed her self up to about three times her usual size and ran into the house and hid under the kitchen cupboards!

Maternal Instinct

As mentioned earlier by both myself and the wife, we have a cat. This weekend for the first time we left her over night on her own as we went off to Cardiff for the football.

The strange thing is that I've worried about her being on her own all weekend and couldn't wait to get home to see her. So much so that we had a blinding row in the car on the way home as to wether we could afford the time to stop and eat our service station pasties or if we should plow up the motorway home.

Is this the way that parents feel when they leave their children at home alone or with someone else for the first time? and if so why do I have these feelings about a cat?!

Until........

four am when she sat at the end of my bed miaowing and miaowing and then started running up and down the bed between us. And why is it that at 8am when I left for work she was fast asleep curled up in a ball?

Am I being unreasonable?!

When you first move in with someone you care about you ignore those little things that really piss you off, like when he takes his clothes off and dumps them on the floor when the linen basket is only a few inches away from where his clothes currently are lying!

But, over time these things start to get on your nerves and you realize that although you can have a rant about the big things (his allergy to washing up for example) you can't go on about the little things without looking anally retentive.

So you'd think I'd understand that he loves the football team more than me BUT I DON'T and I don't think I'm being unreasonable when I want to talk to him after a long day in work and all I'm met with is monosyllabic answers as he can't draw his eyes from the telly.

So how do you deal with a relationship where instead of checking you're OK in the morning when you wake, rolling over and giving you a hug and (perhaps) a kiss, he switches on the TV and checks the rumour mill on ceefax, just in case anything has happened over night with the beloved NUFC.

I'm sure that if I ever had children he'd be that bloke at the football match when the tannoy goes in the first half "Mr Wakefield you're wife has gone into labour" and then in the second half "Mr Wakefield just to let you know you're wife's had a baby boy".

So last night as the goals started pouring in and the language got worse and worse the cat and I retreated upstairs and hid (shameful as it is) from the f@ing monster that was down stairs.

As a result of my first post on the blog am I being unreasonable to want to spend some time with my husband without the other person in our marriage??

Engineering Degree

In August 2001 I graduated from a reasonable University with a degree with Electronics, so you'd think I'd be alright at understanding the complexities of XHTML and other programming languages.

But here comes the confession, I've never learnt to programme and don't understand the basics.

Throught my degree I've used every inch of the girly charm that I had to persuade the men folk on my course to help me (i.e. do it for me) and learnt the basics of C Plus polly parrot fashion (after persuading the examiner to give me a clue as to the exam contents) to pass the exam.

On one memorable occasion I got better marks for a project that I copied from someone else as I'd girlyfied it.

So it's quite frustrating that it's taken me over two hours to change to font on the heading of my blog, and I still can't make it do what I want it to do.

The cat ate my homework

I've managed to persuade my husband to let me have a cat. This is a big event as he's never had a pet in his life and thinks that getting an animal will stop him seeing his beloved NUFC!

But finally we found a small grey cat that fitted the bill and brought her back to our house. The poor thing has had psychological issues in the past and as a result isn't sure if she's a cat or a dog. She follows you round the house like a dog and waggs her tail when she's happy but manages to do aloof as only cat's can.

So having left work on time last night I had to take some work home, which, of course I didn't touch and am now sat in the office at 8:30 trying to get it finished. But having reopened my bag in the office the cat has taken offence to the large green file I was working on and has eaten the top of the file.

As this is not the professional image that really I need to present I'm now working hard to re-file everything on top of having to finish the work from last night.

Moral of this story - Don't take work home and start to believe implausible excuses for not doing work.

Making Time

At what point does your relationship get to the stage where you have to make appointments in your calendar to ensure that you spend time together?

Well we're arrived at this time in our lives. 18 months into our marriage we now have appointments in our diaries to ensure that we spend Tuesday nights together! The only issue is what to do once you're bust a gut all day to allow you to get home on time and in time to meet up with your other half. I'm tired and the best thing I can think of doing all night is sleeping, but doesn't that defy the point of getting home early to spend time together?

Is this therefore the price of a good career and a happy worklife that the most time you spend with your partner is washing up and arguing over who's turn it is to take our the cat litter.

I think that if this is the future..... stop the world I want to get off.