Sleepy time
Thomas
Food Time
Ruby caught me napping after a long day, and Raja obviously had the same idea

Long awaited weekend - as every week! I'm on call though, and I was called this morning while out in ASDA! So tomorrow I'll spend my afternoon in the mortuary... Nafees' 1st week in his new job is over, and he is very happy. It is more the programming side of computing, which is more related to his field of study and he feels he can build a career with them.

The kittens drive me mad, destroying my nice curtains, not finding the litter tray...

I have just been so so lazy this week! Nothing particular going on, no TMA (TMA03 was finally posted on the due day Wednesday). Nafees started his new job, and it seems to be going quite nice. Only the travel to Maidstone is a right pain! Once I come home from work, it takes me about 1 hour to clean up after the kittens. As cute as they are - I can't bear this much longer honestly. And they are all over the house, and Nafees insists on closing our bedroom door at nighttime, can't sleep with 9 kittens running up and down and playing upsailing with your bedcover.

Here is my update from Spring Queen last week, not much done. This week is Monet, but I hardly did a stitch. Have been mainly reading in the evenings.

Thomas, Rosie ' White '

The story centres around the life of 3 people - Finch (how did Thomas come up with this name?!), Alan and Sam. Finch is a successful doctor, but misses the special one person in her life - however,this is not a 'Bridget Jones' type - must find a man story. Alan is a professional mountaineer and heads to Mount Everest for one last trip, leading an expedition up the mountain. Finch joins as the expedition's doctor, but has other reasons as well for joining - all will be revealed. And Sam, well, he sort of follows Finch since meeting her by chance on a flight. The main story is the trip up Mount Everest, but even for non-mountaineers like me, it is an enjoyable read and does not get bogged down with heavy inside information which Thomas definitely has. She made me feel the cold and there were many things I didn't know, for example that the climbers have to go up and down several times, edging nearer with every climb, in order to adjust to the height. I always thought climb and and down again - and so simple is that ;-)) There will be a loss up on the mountain, and the story continues after the descent from Mount Everest. The end is somewhat predictable, but it does not get boring. 2 people will be happy at the end!

I'm frantically trying to finish TMA03 - no choice but to leave my Spring queen this week, so there won't be much progress. TMA03 is due next Wednesday, and I've never been so late with an ansignment. And yesterday was Nafees' leaving due. I joined in, we came home about 10, not too late, but still had sort of hang over this morning. And I still can't believe he's leaving his job in a BOOK SHOP!


Imran managed to do with his 11 years what I haven't managed in 38 years - he's getting published! Well, not a whole book, but it turns out that he did a drawing in an 'After School Club', his school submitted some work into a competion, and my Imran's work was chosen to get published in a book! The topic for the drawing was 'My Family' and I had horror visions of him having done a drawing of me - but turns out he did a drawing of Sugar - our HAMSTER!


Here is the link: http://www.afterschoolclub.net/default.htm

update on last week's project - Glasgow Rose Cat. I started it on Saturday, so not much to see, however, you can already guess what it's going to be, can't you. Not much stitching this week, have to do some serious study work. My assignment is due next week Wednesday, and I haven't even got it to draft stage. I resort again to getting up earlier, just too tired in the evening to do any studying.

and Kittens all over the place now. I spend 1hr cleaning after them after day, it can only get better ;-)

another finish today: the pixel art giraffe. to be honest, i'm not that pleased with the result, mainly because the dividing lines are so visible, or is it just me? maybe it will look better once it is all sticked together and on the wall. I'm planning to decorate Ruby's room with lots of giraffe pictures, and this is the first addition. I need to paint it in the first place anyway, as it's still got those darn Winnie the Pooh stickers still on!

I so enjoyed the hot weather today, we had 26C, very unusual for mid April, I loved it. We went shopping, Nafees needed a new suit for his new job - he is going to start in 1 week. Couldn't go swimming today as I had to drop Nafees off at Kamran's and Ruby went to a birthday party, so it was Mum's taxi.

We started the kittens on food, and they are all over it. and, what goes in must come out... so I put a litter tray up in the bathroom. And I just cannot decide which one to keep. Danial is desperate for the one he calls Thomas (black with white), but I like to tabby one as we don't have a tabby cat any more since Rani has gone.

Andy McNab ' Crisis Four '

Finished the book yesterday. Ok - stereotype: this is a 'blokey' book. SAS, surveillance, secret service etc. The hero is Nick, ex-SAS and now working for the British secret service. He is send on a mission to find Sarah, another agent - of course their is a history between those two, private as well as being on a 'botched' mission together before. however, the book does not bother with a lot of 'lovely dovely' between those two, and it wouldn't suit the style. He finds Sarah, she appears to be involved with terrorists, or is she? The book is less or more current, with Osama getting his mentioning, thought the book clearly written before Sep11. The 'Finale' gets played out at the White House in Washington. There is a twist towards the end, which I didn't see coming, but in retrospect, probably should have seen. The author Andy McNab is ex-SAS as well, so there is detailed descriptions of surveillance,and other techniques of secret agents. Not my usual book, but it made good reading and was fast-paced.

Finish Cross Stitch

I finished a WIP today!! The pansies tablerunner is done. I bought this a few years ago on holiday in Germany, when I forgot to take my cross stitch with me (how could I?) and quickly bought something in the local supermarket (No LNS where my mum lives...). I did about 2 of the flowers on holiday, and it quickly turned into a UFO - mainly because of the longstitch. Once I got it out again a few weeks ago it was finished quite quickly acutally. But I won't do anything in longstitch again if I can avoid it.

The good thing about a table runner is that it doesn't need framing, sewing or whatever - it is ready to be used straight away. Mind, I won't put it up in my house, not with 3 children (4 if you count DH), and the cats. It is probably going to be a gift for my mum (don't worry, she can't read this, she's got no Internet connection).

And this is the new project in my 3-weekly rotation: a medium sized cat project. I don't want to add anything to big into the rotation, as I've got Natures Home Afghan coming up! So, tonight, it's sorting threads and sewing the fabric borders. I find this part exciting, starting a new project. Don't we all!! Anyway, the chart calls for the black (the cat) to be stitched with 3 strands, probably to make the cat stand out more, but I don't think I'll do this, I don't like it too chunky. The fabric is 14ct Aida.

Here is my progress on the Monet picture. There is actually real progress, and I can see an end. It is not so bad to stitch once I get down to it, but I still don't really enjoy it. The fabric is hard and needles bend, and evern so often I have to guess where to place the stitches (chart + pre-print don't go together), this just annoys me. This week, it's back on the pansies which I hopefully should finish, and then another picture can go into the rotation.

I went to a car boot sale today, took the boys along. Picked 4 books up for myself (that's the main reason I love boot sales) 3x Stephen King (Desperation, set of Backmann novels, Wizard and Glass) and Julie Gregory 'Sickened'. 2x Harry Potter for Ruby, the boys bought a Monopoly game for 50p, a Lava Lamp and a few videos.

The 3rd plate of the pixel art is ready. It's a nice relaxation between reading those heavy articles on marxism etc, but it won't replace cross stitch for me ;-)). Here are plates 1,2 and 3 put together. it does look very realistic, but on the original (and I guess on the photo as well) you can see the dividing lines. I will have to stick the finished thing on sticky paper or similar.

The weather was gorgeous today, and for the first time this year I sat outside in the garden, soaking up the sun. Would love to read for pleasure, but have to restrict myself on articles from the course readers. Next week, it's on to left and right Realists, and this is also the topic for my TMA, next one is due in just about 2 weeks so I will have to get down to it from next week onwards.

I can't help it, here are more piccis of the kittens.... they are all over the place now, there seems to be no difference between Honey's and Candy's kittens (despite the age difference of 1 week), the hop and sleep in each other's baskets and even share mums. They are really fast and we try to keep the bedroom door closed. I guess we can introduce solids soon, but then there is the issue of the tray !

a short update on the kittens - they are getting out of their baskets now, and its just a delight to watch them, trying to walk with their tiny little legs, wobbling all over the place. Oh, it will be so so hart to let them go. already there are several different opinions in the family which one to keep, and Danial has even named on 'Thomas'. I'm torn between the little tabby one and a black/white one which seems really cheeky, always the first out of the basket.

I gave in to another one of my passions today and bought a book I wanted for ages:

As a big Stephen King fan, I knew I will buy it at some stage. Usually I wait for a book to come as paperback, it's much more convenient for me to carry around, and cheaper as well which helps of course. Saw this one on offer last week in WH Smith and foolishly didn't get it (they've changed their offer this week to a Jenny Colgan 'West End Girls' which I did buy as well ;-)). Anyway, went into Waterstones Charing Cross today, and there it was, Cell on offer. It's sitting on my fav armchair now, waiting for me to tuck in. My TBR pile is massive, and I've been thinking about putting it away to sort of 'savour the moment' but sod it, I'm gonna start tonight!

Here is my progress for Spring Queen last week:





I finished a large block of the yellowish-beige colour in the bottom right. They are such a pleasure to stitch , large blocks of colour, but it still doesn't get boring. This week, it's Monet in my rotation.


This is how the second plate of my pixel art giraffe looks at the moment. its quick to do, and I do it 'in-between' when I sit upstairs studying.


I've got a day off work today, it's so wonderful having a long weekend. And next week (Easter) all over again - this got me in a right good mood over the weekend. I managed to finish a few chapters in the Theories book, finished with Psychological and Social Criminologies. this week it's on to Radical Criminologists which include Marxism - plenty of articles in the reader on Marxism, hope I can get it finished this week. Hey, good news as well, I passed TMA02 with 85%!!! This is the highest ever mark since I started with the OU. I think I'm on the right path with Criminology, even though I had my doubts as I miss the Psychology.
On another note - Nafees has now finally decided to change his job, he will start his new job on 23 April. I'm not sure if I should be glad or not, after all, as a book lover ('Leseratte' as they say in German), having a husband work in a book shop was just fantastic. Well, what can I do... it is a sort of career progression for him, his new field is more related to his study subject (Software Engineering). He is going to work for a firm of Solicitors as IT Technician. I have the usual worries about probation-period etc. Keeping positive!